weezeralfalfa One of 51 westerns by Republic in the late '30s and early'40s, under the banner of The Three Mesquiteers. The identity of the 3 players varied. John Wayne is involved in only 8 of them, and this is one of those. With a run time of only 55 min., it packs in a lot of scheming and action. Incidentally, although this is scripted as taking place in New Mexico Territory, the Santa Fe in the title refers to the small town of Santa Fe Junction, not to the capital! Also, the closest thing to a stampede is the mob milling around outside the jail where John Wayne, as Stoney Brooke, is being kept. This was early in director George Sherman's career at Republic. Later, he would move to Columbia, and then to Universal. Each time, he would direct B westerns, nearly exclusively. Luci Ward and Betty Burbridge combined to develop the screenplay, both writing the screenplays for primarily B westerns from the late '30s through the '40s.......Here, Wayne, Ray Corrigan and Max Trehune were the 3 Mesquiteers. The latter occasionally got out his Elmer puppet to practice some ventriloquism. Petite June Martel played Stoney's quasi-girlfriend. Her small sister, Julie Jane, was played by Genee Hall, while her small brother Billy was played by Martin Spellman, whose film career was limited to juvenile roles. William Farnum played their father, Dave Carson. LeRoy Mason played the kingpin villain Mayor Gil Byron. Ferris Taylor ,as Judge Hixon, and Dick Rush, as Sheriff Tom, were his two main accomplices in obstructing law and order in the town......It was a gold vein that the Carsons discovered that forms the basis of the story. Mayor Byron and his cronies and henchmen want to take the mine away from the Carsons. To do so legally, they must obtain an ore sample. Toward this end, Byron sends 2 men out to sneak into the mine to get a sample. As they leave on 2 of Carson's horses, Billy shoots at them, alerting the others, who chase them. One is caught, but the other has the ore sample. Stony and bunch take the one to the sheriff, who tells them they need a court order to put him in jail. So, they go to the judge, who obliges them. However, he says there is be a trial right away. The sheriff brings the prisoner over, with a bunch men. One of the men says he couldn't be the thief, since he was working with the defendant at the time. Based on this flimsy evidence, the judge dismisses the case. Stony pipes up "This isn't a court. It's a three ring circus", and is fined for contempt of court. Soon, Stony starts a petition to be sent to the governor, that these corrupt officials be fired. Dave Carson is selected to take this to the governor while, at the same time, Stony takes his ore report to the claims office , in another town. The mayor sends two men to kill Carson, and return with the petition. This they do. However, little Julie Jan was also in the buckboard(why?), which went over a cliff, without a driver. It was assumed she died. Her reported death incensed the town people. Meanwhile, the mayor decided to charge Stony with the crime, since he was away from town at the time. He was jailed on this flimsy evidence, and a mob gathered, demanding that he be lynched. When the sheriff opened the door, Nancy slipped in but, mysteriously, fainted before reaching Stony. The impatient mayor ordered that the jail be set afire. There soon were several big fires within the jail. Then, several sticks of dynamite were thrown into the jail, One blew out a wall allowing Stony to escape, with Nancy in his arms, surviving the fire and smoke inhalation. This whole sequence, beginning with Nancy's fainting, is totally unbelievable. Other than this last part, I enjoyed the film , which was based on a good screenplay. See the ending of the film, at YouTube, for instance.

MartinHafer Republic Pictures made 51 Three Mesqueteer movies from 1936-1943. Oddly, however, the actors playing these three heroes changed often and there were apparent nine different combinations of actors to play these parts! By far the most famous of these actors was John Wayne, who starred in eight of the films--and "Santa Fe Stampede" is one of them.The plot is pretty typical of any B-movie of the period as well as the rest of the Mesqueteer films. There is a gold mine and a baddie wants to take it away from the good guys. On top of this, the baddie pretty much controls the entire town--from the mayor to the judge to the sheriff. As a result, crimes are routinely ignored and the rights of the settlers are trampled upon routinely. The Mesqueteers, being much like traveling social workers and heroes of the old west, spring into action and try to deliver a petition to the governor for help. But, not surprisingly, the mine owner carrying this petition is killed along with his rather annoying young daughter. Everyone was sad, but I was just happy that child was no longer in the film! The baddies know that unless they do something to distract the dumb people of the town that the governor is bound to notice the crazy stuff happening there. So, to divert suspicion from the murder to the two folks, they frame John Wayne for the crime and the town of dumbbells amazingly fall for this!! Think about it--just moments ago they were signing a petition for the governor and now they believe these same men are telling the truth when they say Wayne killed his own friend and his bratty daughter! Duh.In addition to the story, you have Max Terhune on hand as the creepy weird member of the Mesqueteers. That's because he inexplicably whipped out a ventriloquist's dummy--and doing a rather poor job of hiding the fact that his lips were moving! Bizarre--and yet Terhune did this same thing in other films as well! Weird.Overall, despite the very familiar plot and the meaningless addition to Terhune's 'friend' Elmer, it's a pleasant little B-movie--the sort that is just a bit different from the average film in this very crowded genre. Well done...but odd!

FightingWesterner The Three Mequiteers - John Wayne, Ray "Crash" Corrigan, and Max Terhune come to the aid of an old friend who's besieged by a truly nasty group of politically connected claim-jumpers and horse-thieves who plan to steal his goldmine.With lots of atmosphere and suspense to spare, this excellent, rousing entry in Republic Pictures' Three Mesquiteers series is a joy to watch. It's loaded to the rafters with non-stop action, stunts, and close-calls on the part of the heroes. As with other titles in the series, Santa Fe Stampede seems seems like a twelve-chapter serial pressed into just under an hour!Certainly, this is one of the increasingly higher quality pictures leading up to John Wayne's breakthrough role the following year in John Ford's Stagecoach.One thing that's shocking to see in a 1930's Saturday matinée B-western is the sight of a little girl, who dies screaming as her wagon crashes violently from a steep rocky pass! I can't believe they did that!

classicsoncall Kids in Westerns were fairly common as far back as the 1930's, but it's always surprising to me when a youngster is killed or allowed to die like you find here in "Santa Fe Stampede". Young Julie Carson (Genee Hall) and her father Dave (William Farnum) are snuffed by henchmen of Santa Fe Junction's mayor, Gilbert Byron (Le Roy Mason). Though you only see their buckboard crash over a small cliff, this viewer was left wondering if there was some way to have the young lady saved from the wreckage, but that wasn't to be. Considering that a lot of these programmers were meant for Saturday afternoon matinée crowds catering to youngsters, I tried to imagine how kids of the same age might have reacted to the scene.For his trouble, Stony Brooke (John Wayne) is framed for the murders, and it's up to his partners Tucson Smith (Ray Corrigan) and Lullaby Joslin (Max Terhune) to come to the rescue. Together, the trio is The Three Mesquiteers, summoned by Dave Carson for their help in securing his gold claim before things go horribly bad. With virtually every authority figure in town in the pocket of crooked Mayor Byron, it won't be easy for the boys to pull off their heroics. But don't worry, the Mesquiteers will wrap this up in under an hour like they always do.For John Wayne, this was his third appearance for Republic Pictures as a Mesquiteer, replacing Robert Livingston in the series who was promoted to feature films. Wayne appeared in six films with Corrigan and Terhune; in the final two Terhune was replaced by Ray Hatton. The Mesquiteers series was somewhat of a merry-go-round for the principal players, who found themselves trading off partners over the course of fifty one pictures. Other 'B' Western greats who appeared in the series included Duncan Renaldo, Bob Steele, Rufe Davis, and Tom Tyler, along with a handful of others who appeared in a limited number of stories. Of those I've seen, the pictures with Wayne seem to be the ones where the boys have the most fun in between corralling desperate outlaws.Here's something that caught my eye while watching this flick - this is the ONLY 'B' Western I've seen to date in which a cowboy, in this case a villain, uses a rifle with a scope! I don't know when they were invented and first used, but it seemed unusual here, I guess that's why I noticed it.Thinking back on some of the other Mesquiteers movies I've seen, I can't remember if the female lead ever became a serious romantic interest for the members of the trio. Wayne and Corrigan seemed to be jockeying for position to romance June Martel's character in this one, but nothing comes of it. Contrast that with virtually all of Wayne's pictures for Lone Star in the early 1930's; in those he closed out each story in a clinch with a pretty lady.