bkoganbing
Ray Corrigan took his departure from the Three Mesquiteers so it's only two of the Mesquiteers, Bob Livingston and Raymond Hatton who deliver a load of horses to a Caribbean Island. Presumably these are for army use though it looks like there's enough horses there for three platoons of cavalry.It doesn't take too long for the guys to get mixed up in the local political situation with the comandante taking advantage of his troops to enrich himself via the tax collecting. A Robin Hood type bandit played by Duncan Renaldo proves to be their salvation as the two Mesquiteers become three again.Maybe they should have splurged a bit at Republic and shot this one maybe in Catalina because the terrain looks more like the southwest maybe old Mexico than any tropical island in the Caribbean. Outside of Cuba the only island that was still a Spanish colony at this time was Puerto Rico and I can tell you it definitely did not look like Puerto Rico. That Herbert J. Yates was tight with a buck and this was not one of his prestige films for 1939.In any event Renaldo joins Hatton and Livingston making the Mesquiteers a trio again. No doubt also that Yates was thinking of the South American market with this decision. The Kansas Terrors is an easy to take B western, typical of the Mesquiteer films. But the series definitely lost something when John Wayne was no longer one of the trio.
krorie
Republic's popular The Three Mesquiteers had several movie incarnations, the most famous being Bob Livingston (as Stony Brooke), Ray Corrigan (as Tucson Smith), and Max Terhune (as Lullaby Joslin). Perhaps the best remembered because of movie icon John Wayne's role consisted of Wayne (as Stony Brooke), Corrigan (as Tucson Smith), and Terhune (as Lullaby Joslin) with Raymond Hatton (as Rusty Joslin) later replacing Terhune. "The Kansas Terrors" consists of a sixth trio that included Robert Livingston (as Stony Brooke), Duncan Renaldo (as Rico, Rico Rinaldo, Renaldo), and Raymond Hatton (as Rusty Joslin). Livingston had been so successful portraying the masked man in the second Lone Ranger serial, "The Lone Ranger Rides Again," that he reprises the performance in "The Kansas Terrors" as the Masked Rider, even riding a white horse that looked a whole lot like Silver. Why waste a good gimmick if it works?The action in this film is supposed to take place on a Caribbean island, never named, yet the scenery looks much like Southern California with a few palm plants strategically placed here and there. The music in the movie is Mexican (Hollywood style), not Caribbean. The two Kansas Terrors are tough hombres, but I'm not sure that the word "terrors" applies to them. Even the third Mesquiteer (later movie & TV's Cisco Kid) is Spanish-American (from Spain, not the Caribbean). Why quibble when there's so much action to watch?The plot is a simple one. Two gringos from Kansas deliver horses to the Commandante of a small Caribbean island who turns out to be a dishonest killer. A local rebel, Renaldo, is determined to free the island paradise from this tyrant. In the process he is labeled a bandit. The two Kansas terrors befriend the alleged outlaw and help him put his house in order.In most B westerns the comical sidekick is not much of a fighter. In fact, many times he is more in the way of a good fight and often gets the hero sidetracked. Not so in "The Kansas Terrors." Rusty Joslin can hold his own against an entire army. He stacks them up like firewood. He is also actually comical this time around. Republic's noted stunt artist, Yakima Canutt, is on hand to keep the action shots exciting. Not a bad way to spend an hour if you like western adventure of the Saturday matinée variety.
