In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

If you were to take every western ever made and categorize them, you'd probably find that a good 40% had something to do with wagon train rustlers, and that if seen back to back, the ones made between 1930 and 1945 all followed similar patterns. This one is practically identical to a dozen that I have seen in low budget Z grade programmers that probably played double bills together in cheap theaters and rarely were part of a bottom of the double or even triple bill. This is part of one of the many triple heroes together out to capture or kill these one dimensional villains, usually played by the same actors in black clothing and always with a mustache. The heroes here, named the Roughriders, are as good as good can get, and of course, there's the damsel in distress who is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. The team of Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton strive to keep this exciting, but it is simply just more of the same. As these films are normally under an hour and in the public domain, they end up on cheap DVD collections, featuring weak print transfers with wretched sound quality. Monogram had a few good B westerns, but this isn't one of them. This one is just too tedious and without humor. It took a lot to retain my attention.

You've got to give Monogram some credit for the catchy Rough Riders theme song, it captures the spirit of the cowboy trio of Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Ray Hatton rather nicely. Even though each of the cowboy stars was over fifty when the series was formed in 1941, the boys had a nice chemistry going that kept them popular with fans through eight pictures until World War II intervened; McCoy was an Army Colonel who returned to active duty!As far as 'B' Westerns go, "Below The Border" is a fairly entertaining story given the standard formula it's operating with. Working undercover, Marshal Buck Roberts (Jones) infiltrates a cattle rustling gang by impersonating an outlaw, while Sandy Hopkins (Hatton) poses as a hired hand in bad guy Scully's (Roy Barcroft) saloon. McCall's (McCoy) cover is that of a cattle buyer, and as each partner takes his position, the outlaw scheme begins to unravel. There's some suspense when Slade (Charles King), one of the baddies, fingers Buck Roberts as an impostor but he's taken down in a rather awkward showdown. Even more awkward is the way Roberts brings down Scully attempting to get the drop on him in a cave. Actually the scene is downright lame considering Scully had the entire advantage, but then the good guys would have been down to two.If you stop to consider that the characters of Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Ray Hatton went back home respectively to Arizona, Wyoming and Texas in between adventures, in an era before motorized transportation, it's a virtual impossibility that they were able to complete eight investigations in the span of less than two years. But that certainly didn't bother theater goers back in the 1940's, who didn't really worry about those kinds of obstacles. Especially when that theme song started up again - 'The Rough Riders ride, beware...'

"Below the Border" was another entry in Monogram's popular "Rough Rider" series starring Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton. All three had been around since the 20s and were considered to be past their prime when they were cast together in this series.The premise of the series was that three marshals, Buck Roberts (Jones), Tim McCall (McCoy) and Sandy Hopkins (Hatton) would ride into a situation, Roberts from Arizona, McCall from Wyoming and Hopkins from Texas and clean up the problem.In this one, Roberts, posing as John Robbins is riding in a stagecoach with Mexican ladies Rosita Garcia (Linda Brent) and her Aunt Maria (Eva Puig) when it is held up by a gang of outlaws. The Garcia family jewels are taken with Roberts' apparent assistance.This was Buck's way of infiltrating the gang which is led by Scully (Roy Barcroft). In Scully's saloon, Sandy is working as a janitor. Tim arrives on the scene posing as a cattle buyer. We learn that the trio is there to avenge the murder of one of their marshal colleagues and break up a cattle rustling scheme run by Scully and his gang.The Garcia rancho is located "below the border" where Joe Cllins (Dennis Moore) is working with the bad guys in the rustling scheme with the proviso that they leave the Garcia's alone. When he learns of the jewel robbery he tries to leave the gang but................The Rough Riders eventually expose the villains and all are brought to justice, including gang members Charlie King, Bud Osborne and Kermit Maynard.The "Rough Rider" series was held together by the chemistry between the three stars. This made the mostly mediocre scripts better than they were. There was surprisingly little action, rarely a knock down drag out type "B" western brawl and hardly anyone ever got killed. But it worked. The series lasted for eight films and ended in 1942 when McCoy went back into the army and Jones died tragically in a fire, after making one more film with just Hatton, the same year. Hatton continued on with Johnny Mack Brown in 1943.

In another film in their great western series, Buck Jones, Colonel Tim McCoy and Ray Hatton go undercover to solve a jewelry theft along the Mexican border. They each work covertly to rein in the dastardly thieves and restore order to the area.Western film trios were popular during this era of film and this pairing was one of the best. Buck Jones and Tim McCoy were tough but personable on screen and ray Hatton was one of the best western character actors ever.This film was above average, with good action, plot and casting. This one compares favorably with many of the better films of that other cowboy trio, the Three Mesquiteers. Enjoy !