O Bandoleiro Inocente

Three Mesquiteers film starring John Wayne, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, and Raymond Hatton making his series debut replacing Max Terhune. Actually the real star of this one is Don 'Red' Barry as a Dust Bowl cowboy driven to crime by a crooked politician (LeRoy Mason) who's ruling over the poor townsfolk like a dictator. Barry rustles cattle from the Mesquiteers and, instead of stringing him up, the trio decides to help him. This is an enjoyable picture in the series, with Barry giving a standout performance, Yakima Canutt doing stunts, and John Wayne awkwardly dancing with Pamela Blake. Nice support from Charles Middleton, Katherine Kenworthy, and Elmo Lincoln. Climax almost packs a punch but the impact is ruined by immediately rushing into a slapped-on attempt at a happy ending. Why would a character who just lost someone they loved two seconds ago be smiling and happy?

During the course of Republic Studio's Three Mesquiteer series, the composition of this do-gooding trio changed regularly. It changed so often it's hard to keep track of the three actors and the best way to follow the cast change is to look at the excellent Wikipedia article about these films. While he only appeared in about a half dozen of these movies, John Wayne was one of the actors who played 'Stony'....and these Mesquiteer films are a tad better than the rest.

"Wyoming Outlaw" is one of the strangest Mesquiteer films I have seen, if not the strangest. This is because the trio seem more like observers of the action instead of doing what they usually do...solve folks' problems. It also has an incredibly downbeat message...one that must have annoyed audiences, though I appreciated it because all too often the films had nice, happy....and dull endings!

This story finds a senator taking advantage of the folks in his district. Unless people 'voluntarily' contribute to his re-election fund, they suddenly find themselves without jobs or at his henchmen's mercy. The Parker family tries to stand up to these mobsters and the Mesquiteers stand with them.

This film is interesting for some of the actors appearing in the film. Aside from the Mesquiteers (Wayne, Ray Corrigan and Raymond Hatton), 'Red' Barry, Charles Middleton and Elmo Lincoln provide support. Barry was famous for starring in the Red Ryder series, Middleton was 'Ming the Merciless' in the Buck Rogers serial and Lincoln was the screen's first Tarzan, back in 1918.

Overall, a very good installment simply because it isn't all neatly tied up at the end and good doesn't completely triumph over evil.

Will Parker has been destroyed by a local politician and now must steal to feed his family. He steals a steer from the Three Mesquiteers.

Usually a Three Mesquiteers series is snappy and fun but this instalment is poignant and grim. It's backdrop is the dust bowl period. The three Mesquiteers try to stop a crooked politician and prevent a kid - a victim of corruption- from turning into an outlaw which turns into a tragic event. Don Barry as the outlaw acts really well. It's an efficient western, but the least fun. I prefer the mesquiteers in the thick of things, fighting the bad guys, and I like a happy ending.

An American Western; A story about a trio of cowboys who bring their herd to a Wyoming town and end up investigating local political corruption when a thief is subjected to wicked deception. This 'B' movie, set during the Great Depression, is based on characters known as "The Three Mesquiteers" from a series of Western novels by William Colt MacDonald and billed as such for a series of films. Each episode would blend the traditional Western period with the topical issues of the day. This installment is based on a well-publicised real-life incident about a would-be modern Robin Hood who escaped the law and, while hiding in the Wyoming hills, was shot by a citizen. The story is trite, a routine oater, though more serious in tone for the series. John Wayne makes it a show with his feisty persona, albeit from a reduced on-screen presence, and Don 'Red' Barry is compelling as a hopeless, desperate outlaw. The ending is abrupt and spoils what is a good final act.

Interestingly for this routine B-feature, the usual "Three Mesquiteer" characters are not really at the centre of the plot. The story belongs more to 'Red' Barry ("Parker") whose father has been deceived by a crooked politician and so his son ends up having to steal to feed himself and his family. It's when he pinches a cow from Messrs. Wayne, Corrigan and Hatton that the story starts to hot up a bit and, of course, they try to redress the balance for him and his sister "Irene" (Pamela Blake). It's takes a while to get going, this one - but once the scenario has been defined, it moves along nicely with a little more chemistry between Wayne and his female co-star than we are used to. "Ming" himself, Charles Middleton appears sparingly as the hard-done-by father, and LeRoy Mason is adequate - though nothing more - as "Balsinger" - the devious villain of the piece. The film aims squarely at some of the "New Deal" policies of post WWI US governments where opportunists frequently ended up with the whip hand over those who had worked hard during the war feeding the troops, but whose services were now surplus to requirements and they were left very vulnerable to pretty ruthless exploitation.