AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

bkoganbing One of the most interesting of the Three Mesquiteer films has the guys getting involved in an archaeological expedition to find a hidden treasure guarded by a legendary Indian cult, presumably descendants of the Aztecs because they believe in human sacrifice. At least Robert Livingston almost ends up being barbecued at the stake.Mary Russell's father and his partner went off in search of the cult and the partner came back, but he's murdered in one of those locked room puzzles. Despite or maybe because of the fact the Three Mesquiteers were in the room they go along to find a treasure and capture a killer.These modern Aztec type cultists have kept up with modern weaponry because of their leader and when you find out who it is that will be self explanatory. I'm agreeing that the film does resemble some of those cult Kharis mummy films some of which were not all that good. The end is a rather spectacular climax where the cultists are wiped out. Mother nature has more to do with it than the Mesquiteers.Mesquiteer fans should enjoy this.

MartinHafer There were a long string of Three Mesquiteer films during the 1930s. The films consisted of three friends who were government agents in the old West and the films were very low-budget B-movies. However, the lineup changed all the time--and there must have been about two dozen different lineups--including, for a while, a young John Wayne. Among the most consistent lineup for the series were Crash Corrigan, Robert "Whistling Skull" begins with a member of a lost expedition arriving in town. He begins talking about some lost Indian treasure--and then is suddenly killed with a poison-tipped knife. So, the Boys and their new friends all go in search of the lost party--and possibly find the treasure as well. Livingston and Ray Terhune. Oddly, Terhune's shtick was having Elmer (his ventriloquist dummy) and--a very strange thing indeed for the West! While I'll quickly admit that these weren't particularly good films (I've seen a lot with this particular lineup), they were reasonably fun and worth seeing if you like the genre. However, among the Mesquiteer films I have seen, this must be the very worst--mostly because the acting is simply atrocious. I am not exaggerating when I say that many of the extras repeat their lines like they are reading them off cue cards...and they were dyslexic! In addition, the plot, though original, was truly bizarre.By the way, in addition to the weird plot and bad acting, the language was often amazingly offensive--even for 1937. My favorite line is "...those dirty ignorant savages" when members of the search party meet up with natives.

classicsoncall It looks like this film might have been trying to capitalize on the success of the Frank Buck and Clyde Beatty jungle films of the 1930's, as part of the cast is outfitted in safari suits, but that's about as far as the jungle connection goes. "Riders of the Whistling Skull" is one of the cooler sounding titles coming out of the early Western era, and it's somewhat off the beaten path for the Three Mesquiteers. The trio must lead a small party past a cult of fanatic Indians on the way to an enormous treasure of lost gold, while knowing that there's probably a traitor in their midst. The story line is a bit of a relief from the classic Western programmer in which a villainous town boss attempts to hoodwink local ranchers out of their property rights, and you know the 3M's had a fair share of those stories as well.The coolest thing about this flick is that rugged mountain cliff that actually resembles an Indian face. With the wind whipping through the canyon, it wasn't too tough to come up with the whistling skull connection. The other scene to keep on the lookout for is that wild horse spill that Miss Betty Marsh (Mary Russell) and Lullaby Joslin (Max Terhune) take when their horses are tripped up by a rope across the trail. It's the first and only time I've actually been able to see a trip wire used to make the horses go down, and it always amazes me to see the broncs get back up. You can chalk up the stunt work to veteran Yakima Canutt who also pulls double duty in the picture as Indian guide Otah, even though he's virtually unrecognizable.There were a couple of things that didn't make sense to me as some of the action scenes played out, but that's not unusual. Keep an eye on the scene when Tucson (Ray Corrigan) makes his way down a rock face and an Indian cuts his rope. Stony (Robert Livingston) is standing on the ledge where he knocked the Indian off, and when the rope breaks, the end of it is at Stony's waist level. Couldn't Stony have just held on to the rope below the cut to prevent the rope from breaking? I also had to wonder why Tucson's shirt sleeve was missing after he tumbled down the cliff, how exactly does that work? If you're keeping score, this is the fourth in Republic's series of Three Mesquiteers films, and the third featuring Livingston, Corrigan and Terhune as the title characters, (Syd Saylor appeared in the first flick as Lullaby). Some fans find it to be one of their best, but I'll have to reserve judgment. I think Lullaby's dummy Elmer should have had a larger role.

FightingWesterner The Riders Of The Whistling Skull is The Three Mesquiteers best and most famous adventure and the best B-western of the nineteen-thirties, with more action, thrills, and suspense in it's fifty-three minutes than in all twelve chapters of some of Republic Pictures' serials!The story involves the Three Mesquiteers and their search for the missing father of a pretty archaeologist, kidnapped by a sinister Indian cult after discovering the lost city of Lukachukai and it's treasure, all surrounding the creepy rock formation known as The Whistling skull.This is first rate all the way with great locations and lots of weird touches like the cult's ritual dance (with a young Iron Eyes Cody in attendance) and the "mummy" who stands up and brandishes a knife!I recommend this heartily to fans of B-westerns and to people who want to witness the best that the genre has to offer.