Red River Range (1938) John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune, Polly Moran, Lorna Gray Movie Review

Red River Range (1938)   3/53/53/53/53/5


John Wayne and Lorna Gray in Red River Range (1938)

Wayne has a Shot of Mesquiteer

The folks of Red River have tried to deal with some highly organised rustlers by themselves but failed so have wired the Governor for some help. That help comes in the form of the Three Mesquiteers led by Stony Brooke (John Wayne). But before the Mesquiteers make it to town they run in to old friend Tex Reilly (Kirby Grant) who has been hired by another group to look into the rustling. Tex and Stony switch places as Tex was chased by a gang and so Stony gets himself in with rustlers by posing as a criminal and feeding information back to his pals as to what is going on. Trouble it that the rustlers' boss discovers what is going in and the Mesquiteers end up in danger.

I know I have watched at least one other western featuring The Three Mesquiteers but am confident that I haven't watched one where John Wayne was one of these heroes. But considering The Three Mesquiteers never had a set in stone trio who played them quite a few western stars in their own right appeared in a Three Mesquiteer movie at one point or another. And for me it is the fact that "Red River Range" features John Wayne which made it all the more engaging although truth be told the young John Wayne turns in an incredibly typical performance with him playing it young, handsome and heroic although he does deliver some comedy as he plays dumb at being a cowboy.

The thing is that beyond "Red River Range" featuring John Wayne and plenty of comedy it is pretty generic and by generic I mean forgettable. We have a young lady who needs help, another lady who does plenty of comedy and of course we have a puppet, a trademark of the Three Mesquiteers. It means that this is another early western which you will have forgotten about within a week of watching it.

What this all boils down to is that whilst "Red River Range" features a fun performance from John Wayne it isn't an overly memorable western with most of it ending up typical of these types of early westerns.


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