Like everyone else cowboy heroes answered their country's call after Pearl Harbor and that includes Mongram's Range Busters. Cowboy Commandos has Ray Corrigan, Dennie Moore, and Max Terhune going after a gang of spies and saboteurs who are after Steve Clark's magnesium mine, a metal vital for the war effort. By the way Max Terhune is without Elmer for this Range Buster film.
The Range Busters get called in from a Bond Tour with trick rider Evelyn Finley who was a stunt-woman in real life. Her brother who was a deputy sheriff was killed by the gang whom they have absolutely no clue at all about, so says Steve Clark.
You've got to love it. They have no clue though there are henchmen out there named Fritz, Hans, and a Italian one thrown in for good measure named Mario. He tries a knife attack against Crash Corrigan to make sure we know this is an Italian. They all hang out at a saloon which looks like a Hofbrau with pinball machines and the owners are Wilhelm and Katie Werner. This gang has eluded traditional law enforcement however.
Comedian Johnny Bond is another deputy and he contributes the classic song I'm Gonna Get The Fuehrer Sure As Shootin'. I know you'll be surprised when I tell you it was not nominated for an Academy Award.
Cowboy Commandos is a film I've always cited when talking about our wartime propaganda films at their worst. But I have to admire the sheer audacity of Monogram Pictures for putting this one out even in the years of World War II. It's bad beyond belief, but I think today's audience will be similarly enthralled by Monogram's chutzpah.
