New Frontier

John Wayne said farewell to the Three Mesquiteers film series and to the character of Stoney Burke he had played in them. The Mesquiteers would continue on without the Duke as they had before him. Herbert J. Yates and Republic finally decided that Wayne had become too big a star to continue him in B westerns. His next film after this was a loan out to RKO, Allegheny Uprising.

In fact there was another change in the cast, Max Terhune left the series even before this and was replaced by Raymond Hatton.

New Frontier, not to be confused with the Kennedy administration, also has Phyllis Isley as the leading lady. Her next film would win her an Academy Award and a name change to Jennifer Jones. Of course that is the Song of Bernadette. She never did do a film with Wayne after this, but I'm guessing it was because the Duke didn't want to work for David O. Selznick.

This entry in the Mesquiteers films deals with the right of eminent domain. The Mesquiteers ranch and the property of all the others in New Hope Valley has been condemned because the state wants to build a dam for a large city and create a reservoir where their property is. This subject was dealt with in a quite serious way in Elia Kazan's film Wild River about the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Of course here it's all part of land swindle, but Stoney, Tucson, and Rusty put things to right in the end and do it with the same pioneer spirit their ancestors showed.

You would expect anything else from a John Wayne film?

This film begins with the residents of a small ranching community being informed that they must relocate from their homes due to the construction of a new dam, which will flood the entire area. Needless to say, the residents are not too happy with this decision, and they have decided to resist any and all attempts by anyone seeking to evict them from their lands forcibly. So, rather than take a loss on their investment by having the matter delayed any further, the greedy corporate developers decide to trick the ranchers into accepting worthless land in the desert under the false promise that a huge irrigation pipeline will be built to satisfy all of their water requirements. And to further assist them in their underhanded scheme, the Three Mesquiteers are duped into convincing the local ranchers that the deal is actually legitimate. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was the last film to feature John Wayne in the role of "Stony Brooke," with Robert Livingston being called back afterward. Apparently, John Wayne was a much too valuable commodity to waste on grade-B westerns of this type. And judging by this rather mediocre addition to the series, I can certainly understand that reasoning. Be that as it may, although this wasn't a terribly bad film necessarily, I honestly didn't care that much for it, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

"Impoverished by civil war, and faced with the painful labor of reconstruction, thousands of Americans cut the old tries and took the immigrant trail to the free lands of the far west – and a new beginning," according to the opening...

A pioneering family led by soldier Eddy Waller (as Steven Braddock) finds a beautiful area to settle and they name the place "New Hope Valley" because if symbolizes new hope. Fifty years later, the family and other residents celebrate the town's golden anniversary. On hand are Republic Pictures' "The Three Mesquiteers" – leader John Wayne (as Stony Brooke), partner Ray Corrigan (as Tucson Smith) and comic sidekick Raymond Hatton (as Rusty Joslin). They seem to be, herein, based in "New Hope" and riding the (?) Pony Express. Trouble arrives when nasty government men and land contractors declare "New Hope Valley" is condemned, so they can level the town and build a damn. Outraged citizens convince Mr. Wayne to lead the opposition...

This routine round-up was the last series appearance for two of the Mesquiteers. Wayne was obviously off to greener pastures due to his choice role in director John Ford's "Stagecoach" (1939). He would be replaced by returning "Stony" Robert Livingston. Also calling it quits, Mr. Corrigan went on to star in his own series, with Bob Steele taking over the "Tucson" role. Republic remembered they already had a "New Frontier" (1935) starring John Wayne, so they re-titled this "Frontier Horizon". Making her film debut herein is pretty young Phylis Isley, who became very popular after changing her name to "Jennifer Jones" and hooking up with producer David O. Selznick. In Hollywood, being noticed by John Ford or David Selznick certainly helped.

*** New Frontier Horizon (8/10/39) George Sherman ~ John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, Raymond Hatton, Jennifer Jones

Three Mesquiteers film starring John Wayne, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, and Raymond Hatton. This time around the trio are helping ranchers fight crooked land grabbers. This was Wayne's final entry in this series of B westerns before moving on to bigger and better things. It's also the film debut of Jennifer Jones, billed under her pre-Selznick name of Phylis Isley. She does a fine job. Corrigan and Hatton are fun. Nice support from Eddy Waller. LeRoy Mason plays the heavy for the second consecutive Mesquiteers film. This is a pretty standard B western with a wonky timeline (supposed to be the 1910s but it's more like the 1870s). There's little to recommend about it outside of its appeal to Wayne (and maybe Jennifer Jones) completists.

New Frontier (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The final Three Mesquiteer film for John Wayne has the boys trying to help some settlers who are about to lose their land to some bad men. At the moment I can't recall how many of the Wayne films I've seen from this series but this is just like most of them. The film contains some pretty good action scenes and Wayne is good as usual but the stories aren't really that strong. Jennifer Jones has a small supporting role and does a pretty nice job.

As of now the only way to view these films is by AMC, which also includes commercials.