One of 51 Republic westerns, in the late '30s and early '40s, under the banner of The Three Mesquiteers: a combination of mesquite and musketeers. The identity of the 3 actors varied. John Wayne was in only 8, including this one. With a run time of only 55 min., it packs in a lot of scheming and action. It's an early example of the directing of B movies by George Sherman. He would eventually move to Columbia, then to Universal, always directing almost exclusively B westerns. Here, Wayne is Stony, Ray Corrigan is Tucson, and Max Trehune is Lullaby. The latter occasionally gets out his dummy: Elmer, to practice his ventriloquism....... Nancy(Carole Landis) is running a circus. Her financial manager, George Ward(Ralph Graves)receives a(planted) letter offering to buy her inherited ranch for $2000. George recommends she sell it, but she balks, saying some year she wants to retire to that ranch. Besides, she doesn't need the money, as her circus brings in enough income. George, who is the inside man for a ring of villains, tells Steve about his disappointment. They decide to stage a number of dramatic 'accidents' to make the people afraid to come to the circus. Thus, the lion cage is unlatched, resulting in pandemonium. Then, a tent is set on fire. Soon, lawsuits also eat into the profits, and the circus has to fold. George again recommends that she sell her ranch, but she's determined to move there........It happened that the 3Ms had a ranch (the 3M) adjacent to Nancy's ranch, called the WE. It also happened that the sign for the 3M ranch had been knocked upside down, so that it read WE. So, when Nancy was looking for her ranch, she and a few circus people moved into the 3M ranch house, before the 3Ms returned. She was so enthusiastic about the house, the 3Ms were afraid to tell her it was the wrong house, her real house being not nearly so nice. Thus, initially, they pretended that the WE ranch was theirs. George soon arranged to set the WE barn on fire, hoping to scare Nancy into selling.......Nancy gets a letter from the government offering to buy her ranch for $75,000., as they want to build a dam there.(George had previously gotten a similar letter, hence why he was so set on buying the ranch for a pittance). This would be enough to start up another circus. However, the actions of the 3Ms have made this transaction problematic. See the movie (available at YouTube) to find out the problem and what the 3Ms did to solve it.......Nancy's circus remnant included Collette Lyons, as Lillian, and Willie: the Gorilla, who provide occasional humor. Lillian is the stereotypical sexy blond bimbo. When she got to the ranch, she asked how long it would take to learn to milk a chicken? Willie, of course, was Ray Corrigan, in a gorilla suit. Every now and then he would scare somebody or get into mischief........This was still early in the film career of Carole Landis, who wasn't in many westerns. Less than a decade later, she would take an overdose of sleeping pills. She was depressed about her revolving door romantic life. Also, her movie career seemed to be stalled. In addition, she had a number of health issues, including some residual problems acquired in the South Pacific when she was entertaining GIs during the war. Finally, she was disappointed by her endometriosis negating the possibility ofhavingchildren

Executive producer: Herbert J. Yates. Copyright 12 May 1939 by Republic Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 19 June 1939. U.K. release through British Lion. Never theatrically released in Australia.

U.K. release title: Danger Rides the Range.

SYNOPSIS: Crooked manager tries to cheat a circus girl out of her ranch.

NOTES: Number 23 of the 52-picture "Three Mesquiteers" series, and the last for Max Terhune, who had played Lullaby Joslin in every one of the movies thus far except Powdersmoke Range (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) and The Three Mesquiteers (Syd Saylor).

COMMENT: Although most of the action highlights are obviously made up of stock footage (the circus fire scenes were extracted from the 1937 Circus Girl and were used again by Monogram in The Ape), this one comes across as a most engaging entry. It's nice to see such a great deal of the picture devoted to Max Terhune, who even takes the main action role at the climax, while Wayne and Corrigan dispatch the villains in disappointingly short order. And in addition to the usual by-play with Elmer Sneezeweed, Max also enjoys a couple of run-ins with an over-friendly gorilla (which, although credited to an animal named "Naba", is obviously a stunt man in a fur suit).

Wayne plays with his usual mixture of steadfastness and charm. It's also pleasing to see Carole Landis as the heroine, though as a brunette here she's not particularly recognizable.

I didn't spot stuntman David Sharpe on-screen. He possibly performs that death-defying leap from horseback to the runaway circus team. Roscoe Ates makes a last-reel entrance to provide some comic relief whilst Billy Curtis is off somewhere and while Max Terhune (as mentioned above) is actually doing the action honors.

Ralph Graves amounts to no more than a serviceable heavy. Black-hatted John Merton has to help him out. The villain's villainy is so obvious, the heroine seems pretty dumb not to tumble to him much earlier. Still, that plot seems pretty preposterous anyway.

Although director Sherman's handling rates only a nod for competently routine, production values are considerably enhanced by all the stock footage. And there is one staged-for-real rough-and-tumble in a small hotel room in which our heroes take on three heavies.