Three Texas Steers (1939)

INFORMATION FROM IMDb

Plot Summary
Nancy Evans, lovely circus owner, has a ranch that she's never visited,
but for sentimental reasons won't sell to Mike Abbott. Her partners, secretly in league with Abbott,
sabotage the circus to force Nancy to sell the ranch; instead, she goes there to live.
Will her neighbors, the Three Mesquiteers, be a match for the secret swindlers?
And what's so valuable about that run-down ranch anyway?
Summary written by Rod Crawford

Full Cast
John Wayne .... Stony Brooke
Ray Corrigan .... Tucson Smith
Max Terhune .... Lullaby Joslin
Carole Landis .... Nancy Evans
Ralph Graves .... George Ward
Roscoe Ates .... Sheriff Brown
Collette Lyons .... Lillian
Billy Curtis .... Hercules, the Midget
Ted Adams .... Henchman Steve
Stanley Blystone .... Henchman Rankin
David Sharpe .... Tony
Ethan Laidlaw .... Henchman Morgan
Lew Kelly .... Postman
Naba .... Willie the Gorilla
John Beach .... Henchman (uncredited)
Bob Burns .... Man exiting Sheriff's Office (uncredited)
Jack Kirk .... Townsman (uncredited)
Ted Mapes .... Henchman (uncredited)
John Merton .... Mike Abbott (uncredited)
Dave Willock .... Hotel Desk Clerk (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Betty Burbridge original screenplay
William Colt MacDonald characters
Stanley Roberts original screenplay

Original Music
William Lava

Cinematography
Ernest Miller

Stunts
Yakima Canutt .... stunts (uncredited)
James Fawcett .... stunts (uncredited)
Cliff Lyons .... stunts (uncredited)
Ted Mapes .... stunts (uncredited)
Joe Yrigoyen .... stunts (uncredited)

Trivia
Ray Corrigan not only plays his familiar character of Tucson Smith,
second billed of the Three Mesquiteers, but also, billed as 'Naba', plays Willie the Gorilla.

Memorable Quotes

Filming Locations
Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California, USA

Three Texas Steers is a 1939 "Three Mesquiteers" Western film
starring John Wayne and directed by George Sherman.
The film is notable for being the final film in which silent film icon Louise Brooks performed.
Wayne played the lead in eight of the fifty-one films in the popular series

After his unhappy spell, with the 6 picture deal with Universal,
things changed for the better.

A series of 'B' Westerns, was being updated, with Duke
being invited into the role of Stony Brooke, recently vacated by
by Bob Livingston.
The Three Mesquiteers
was a popular series for Republic , and Duke's winning personality,
soon worked in, with the established characters, Ray Corrigan, as Tuscon Smith,
Max Terhune as Lullaby Johnson, and Terhune's dummy, Elmer.

Duke made 8 of these and this was his sixth.
Although, it is said, he found them to be dreary, and a drudgery.

I can remember seeing them, on the Saturday morning matinees,
with all the kids, yelling, booing and hissing, at every other interval.
I remember Elmer, with great fondness, oh and yes Duke of course.
What an improvement he was, in these, and the Duke we now ,know and love,
was at least shining through.

Quote

They were horrible montrosities

he told writer Maurice Zolotow.

However, what Duke didn't realise, is that they had exposed him,
to a much bigger audience, including 'A' pictures, audiences.

They may have been a drudgery, but within months,
the big bang, was there Stagecoach

Duke responds,

Quote

It still does.It stands for freedom, and fair play

When deciding, on what had to be done,

Quote

Duke expounds,
All the more reason, we gotta fight.The men, who opended up this country, didn't sit around, cryin' for help.
They did somethin'

With dialogue like this,The Three Mesquiteers had to win the day.

This is the one that brought Carole Landis to the screen,
the three guys saving the day, after the baddies try to take her ranch.

steers.jpg

User Review

Quote

Saving A Circus,
13 January 2007
6/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Besides of course John Wayne, two other movie legends got parts in the B western series The Three Mesquiteers. One was Jennifer Jones and the second in this film was Carole Landis. After a whole bunch of bit roles, Carole got the female lead here in Three Texas Steers. Right after that she got signed for her breakthrough role in One Million, BC with a 20th Century Fox contract to boot.

Here Carole is the owner of a circus who all of a sudden runs into a streak of horrible bad luck. Due to a lot of accidents her circus has to fold and she retreats to her ranch. It's a pretty broken down place, but fortunately the one piece of good luck she has is the fact that The Three Mesquiteers own the neighboring ranch.

The boys are a bit oafish in this one and Max Terhune manages to get himself swindled which nearly puts them all down the toilet, both the Mesquiteers and the Landis spread. Of course things work out all right in the end as Carole finds out who's behind her bad luck and why her ranch is so valuable.

Carole Landis had a lot of beauty and a lot of talent in one package. It's interesting to see her at this point in her career, before she went totally platinum blond. Too bad she and the Duke never got to work together again when both were A list stars.

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