MoPoshy
Absolutely brilliant
Bea Swanson
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Ava-Grace Willis
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
bbmtwist
A very competent B western, well edited and scored, but of no consequence, beyond entertainment.Wayne is charming, Brooks in her 13 scenes in a supporting role, is vocally and facially competent as a sound film actress, but not in any way special. Any back lot actress could have acted the role as well. Her last film, and indeed, it was not a loss. She was special as a silent actress, but on the sound screen, she was mediocre to competent at best.
Liwataki
Other commentators have mentioned just about everything I would have noted about this kid western. Such westerns were made from the 20's through the 50's and featured cowboy heroes who generally wore white hats or rode white horses or both. Forget plot logic, characterization, and focus on horse riding, chases, and shoot 'em ups. The curious mix of the modern (a motor bus and an airplane) and the old (cowboys on horseback) in this film never makes you forget the traditional format of six guns shooting forever like a video game weapon and no visible damage to valuable props. Watch the airplane door used as a shield against bullets in one of the final scenes. No damage whatever.Louise Brooks is no more distinctive than any other leading lady in any other grade B westerns of the era. Yes, she does have long brown hair, almost shoulder length, not her trademark bangs; and she is slender and lissome. But her voice does not match her silent screen image. It surprises, if you have not heard it before. It is low pitched, not melodious, not distinctive in any way. Listen to Jean Arthur, Hepburn, Davis, oh, so many others, for example, and in a blind hearing there would be no mistaking the personality. The voice of Brooks is not memorable, nor in any way like the Lulu of our dreams. But, hey, it's her last screen appearance (other than the documentary many years later), and so it is prized.
bkoganbing
Continuity was not a big thing back in the day with A films let alone B film serials. The Three Mesquiteers in their various adventures flipped back and forth between the old west and the modern west. Overland Stage Raiders is about as modern as you can get in their stories though.The boys have decided to invest in an airline in this film. It seems as though the modern stage, make that bus, is constantly being held up and this seems a practical way to avoid robbers. Not to mention that Louise Brooks kind of perks John Wayne's interest.The robbers however are not to be denied. I have to say that this is the only western I know with a plane holdup. That in and of itself is enough reason to try and see this film.The once in a lifetime teaming of John Wayne and silent screen legend Louise Brooks is also a reason to see Overland Stage Raiders. Who would ever have figured on them as a screen team.Overland Stage Raiders is one of the best of the three Mesquiteer series with a very novel setting for a story.
vandino1
Once upon a time this was just another Saturday matinée western from reliable Republic Studios. Now it has a small place in film history... and also happens to be a filmic hodgepodge bordering on insanity. At the time, it was John Wayne's second 'Mesquiteer' outing, after he took over the role of Stony Brooke from Robert Livingston. Apparently Livingston and co-star Ray "Crash" Corrigan didn't get along, so Wayne was given the role after he re-signed with Republic. Wayne was NOT a happy actor at the time, having tried to get out of Poverty Row westerns, but now he was back at Republic and making less money than before. Yet, his performance is not affected: he appears cheery throughout this film. Republic started making 'Mesquiteer' films in 1936 and went on to produce 51 of them, amazingly. As film history this one is noted for Wayne's appearance a year before he would finally get another crack at A-film stardom with 'Stagecoach' --- and because this is Louise Brooks final film performance. Sadly, it isn't much of a part and her acting is mediocre. And then there is the insanity---the most enjoyable aspect of the film. First off, it is a western about bandits on horseback trying to steal a gold shipment from a coach... but this is a contemporary western so the coach transporting the gold is played by a large, motorized, 1930's passenger bus. So, we get the sight of horse ridin' bandits shootin' and chasin' a BUS... and when they stop the bus then pull out and line up the passengers in classic, stagecoach robbing style, the 'Three Mesquiteers' charge up on horseback, guns blazing, to stop them. Fine... except the bandits are standing right next to the passengers, so the Mesquiteers are firing right into a crowd of innocent victims! Oh, and just before this scene we get the opening that features an airplane whizzing by Corrigan and fellow Mesquiteer Terhune, then a passenger falling out of the airplane... but not to his death because he's saved by his parachute. For some reason this short chain of events enrages Corrigan FOR NO APPARENT REASON and he gallops off to give the chutist a chin sandwich, but the chutist is revealed to be none other than ol' Duke Wayne himself.And the film makers race onward, heedless to logic, but gifted in ineptitude. For instance, there is the incompetence of a gunmen-on-train vs. horseback-posse battle with bullets flying everywhere but neither a horse or rider seemingly even grazed... then the train is stopped and the armed and uninjured gunmen atop the railroad car simply give up---for no apparent reason. There's more: You get a clumsy, badly staged fight scene with Wayne in the engine compartment of the locomotive; later, a final bit with Terhune suddenly a ventriloquist holding a flight-suited dummy named Homer; and, the topper, an outrageous scene wherein those same bandits go after YET ANOTHER gold shipment, this one on an AIRPLANE, and strap parachutes onto the passengers and boot them out of the plane: "Count to three and pull the cord, lady!" Is it any wonder that Wayne would recall these films with dismay.
