SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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.

Jim Tritten A real solid class "B" western with a pre-John Ford John Wayne at his shooting and roping best. Second of the "Three Mesquiteers" series, the plot is both far-fetched and intriguing for its ingenuity. Who would expect to go to a Saturday matinée and see a second billed western that involves the tactical integration of aerial spotting in defense of overland lines of communication, communications deception, gas hand grenades used to defend an improvised landing strip, parachuting cowboys and passengers, the hijacking and retaking of a cattle train, a talking ventriloquist's dummy in flight gear, and an in-flight robbery -- all within less than an hour! A more thorough examination of the plot reveals that John Wayne is aligned with the common folks against the evil and unscrupulous capitalist bus company owner who will go to no end to prevent the loss of his lucrative contract to carry the gold. I mean this movie introduces some basic economic theory into its entertainment. Quite a lot to process within such a short time. The bad guys are either shot outright, roped and hog-tied, or beaten into submission. Oh yes, Louise Brooks plays a quite forgettable part as the sister of the pilot. Not your run of the mill film. Not well made with a very lackluster ending, but worth your time. This one is a hoot!

stuthehistoryguy _Overland Stage Raiders_ marks the convergence of two great performers, one on her way out of film, the other about to begin the most successful run in film history. Louise Brooks, star of G.W. Papst's erotic masterpiece _Pandora's Box_, makes her last appearance in this run-of-the-mill, twentieth-century entry in the "Three Mesqueeters" series. Though the plot is a preposterous hodgepodge involving the opening of air freight service to an isolated cattle town, Brooks is ever the stunner next to John Wayne, who was still a year away from A-line box office success in _Stagecoach_.I recommend this film for three reasons:1. The sheer curiousity value. The greatest western actor opposite the greatest actress in the history of German Expressionism while he was on his way up and she was on her way out. They met in obscurity and went on to immortality.2. The chance to see the raw potential of John Wayne before his work with John Ford. The presence, the charisma, and the physicality that would make him a colossus are all here. Under a competent directior, these would bloom from reliable entertainment into art.3. Everyone should see a "Three Mesqueeters" movie. This is probably the best series of the 1930s "poverty row" films, and it is a pure joy to see the workmanlike love put into these programmers. They aren't auteur classics, but for many viewers in the period, they were what movies were all about.

Louise-14 A slow moving film with a VERY predictable plot. Not a worthy role for John Wayne OR Louise Brooks. A disappointment in every way. Only a western/ John Wayne/Louise Brooks completist should own this film.