Back in the heyday of B-westerns, Republic and Monogram studios tried something unusual. Instead of offering one hero in a movie, they came up with the idea of a trio who were friends and do-gooders. The Three Mesquiteers went through many cast changes...and keeping track of all the actors is NOT easy. But with the Range Busters, they hit on a trio, or shall i say FOUR characters they used in all in their films....Dusty King, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune and Terhune's possibly evil puppet, Elmer and they used them in the first 16 films in the series...the final 8 saw several cast changes. Yes, I did say that in one of the strangest writing decisions in westerns, they gave Terhune a ventriloquist dummy...and Elmer sometimes moves and talks on his own in a few of the films, such as in "Texas Trouble Shooters". Why they didn't get an exorcist for Elmer, I have no idea....as Elmer was REALLY creepy and annoying as well. That's one strike against this movie at the onset.
Shortly after the film begins, Max happens upon a wounded man, Bret Travis. However, oddly, shortly after this he and his friends meet another man who says HE is Bret Travis! What gives? Well, the local baddie wants land that Travis co-owns and after he thought Travis was killed, he replaced him with a compliant replacement. This means, sooner or later, the same baddies will be coming for the other co-owner, Judy. Can the Range Busters straighten all this out and bring evil to justice? What do you think??!!
Like so many westerns (particularly Hopalong Cassidy films), as soon as I saw Glenn Strange in the movie I knew he was either the evil man behind replacing Bret or was the man's evil second-in-command....he almost always played this sort of role in the 30s and 40s westerns. Oh, and when he wasn't playing these roles, he was Frankenstein's monster in 1940s horror films.
So is it any good? Yes....but nothing particularly outstanding either. Pleasant entertainment...the sort you expect from this trio...I mean, this quartet!
