Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

One of 51 westerns by Republic. in the late '30s and early '40s under the banner of the 3 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 westerns by George Sherman. He would eventually move to Columbia, and then to Universal, always almost exclusively directing B westerns. Here, Wayne, as Stony, Ray Corrigan, as Tucson, and Max Trehune as Lullaby are the 3Ms. The latter occasionally got out his dummy, Elmer, to practice his ventriloquism........ The plot involves the forging of a fraudulent land grant issued by the Spanish crown in the 18th century, and the fraudulent claim of being a direct descendent of the grantee, by an ex-con and gambler: Talbot(George Douglas), who acts as the puppet for the forger: Hazelton(Walter Wills acts as the Baron's beautiful wife.). Soledad(Doreen McKay). This grant is said to involve 13 million acres somewhere in the West. This may sound preposterous, but it's clear that this story is based upon the historical Peralta land grant fraud, in which James Addison Reaves devised a fraudulent land claim issued by the Spanish crown This involved 12 million acres(close to the stated 13 million acres in this film) in central Arizona and New Mexico.. This story is told more accurately in the 1950 "Baron of Arizona".......Here, Talbot as 'Baron' de Serrano, soon begins evicting settlers for inability to pay his exorbitant rent or fees for use of certain internal improvements. The #Ms are booted out of the ranch house. They send a letter of complaint to President Garfield, who replies that he can do nothing unless it can be proven that the Baron has done something illegal. Thus, the 3Ms decide to become secret vigilantes, wearing white capes and hoods .(Unfortunately, they look disturbingly like the getups typically worn by the KKK: another vigilante group). They were soon referred to as Los Capequeros. They rode around looking for the Baron's rent and fee collectors, to rob and give the money to those immediately threatened with eviction. Thus, they were like a mix of Zorro and Robin Hood. During a period, they even masqueraded as henchmen for the Baron's posse looking for them. Eventually, they are found out, and sentenced to death by a firing squad organized by the sheriff. Fortunately, the sheriff in on their side, and the Baron doesn't stay to watch the proceedings. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! The sheriff puts blanks in the rifles and fakes their deaths. Assuming them dead, a large mob of townies heads for the Baron's hacienda, ready to string him up. The 3Ms ride out to the hacienda, and go around back to avoid the mob seeing them. They climb up from their horses and enter via a window. They stick up the frightened Baron, Soledad, and Hazleton. Hazleton confesses that he was the mastermind and maker of the fraud. Wayne tells them they won't reveal to the mob that they are alive until Hazleton and Talbot sign a paper confessing they are frauds.....Perhaps the film should have been titled "Day Riders", as they did most of their riding by day, when the rent collectors were active, and so as to distinguish them from certain other more violent vigilante groups sometimes referred to as the Night Riders. ...See it at YouTube.

Copyright 12 April 1939 by Republic Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 12 April 1939. U.K. release through British Lion. No Australian theatrical release. 6 reels. 58 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Spanish land grant claimant successfully evicts the Mesquiteers from their 3M Ranch. They decide to prove the new land baron is a phony. In the meantime, disguised in flowing white capes, they rob the baron of his rent money and return it to the farmers awaiting eviction.NOTES: Number 22 of the 52-picture series.COMMENT: Shades of Sam Fuller's later Baron of Arizona, this entry ties a couple of interesting variants on the usual stock "B"-western land-grabbing theme. We enjoyed the heroes' caped crusaders (combining Robin Hood and Zorro). This movie was actually made right after Wayne's stint in Stagecoach. He plays the leader of the trio with his customary easy assurance. The plot device of linking the trio's fate with President Garfield's assassination is clever enough and we like Kermit Maynard's obliging sheriff.Aside from what I've written above, however, The Night Riders has not a great deal to recommend it. Republic were obviously trying hard to produce a large-scale western on an extremely cramped budget. Stock shots; montages of newspaper headlines, posters, etc; closet-sized sets; meager crowds of extras; second-rate players abound. Worst of all, the direction lacks sweep. Even the few action scenes are put across in such a perfunctory fashion, they have little impact. And script opportunities to build up tension are often dissipated.OTHER VIEWS: Wayne's easy charm stands him in good stead in this "Three Mesquiteers" entry. The script allows him some forceful moments as he and his buddies join the villain's army to hunt down - themselves! The writing, alas, is often more inventively plotted and sharper dialogued than what we actually see and hear on the screen, thanks to Sherman's lackluster direction and economy-conscious production values.

Talbot Pierce, a notorious card shark, is thrown from a riverboat and washes on shore at an inn which also houses a forger Hazelton. Hazelton has the idea of using a forged Spanish land grant that would say Don Luis de Serrano (Pierce) would own 13 million acres of land in Arizona. The courts decide it is authentic and Don Luis takes over the land and charges high taxes, cattle tolls, and rent for his land, and then evicts them after he taken everything they have including the 3M ranch. Stony, Tucson, and Lullaby decide to strike against Don Luis by riding as white robed vigilantes Los Capaqueroes, where they hold up Don Luis' tax collectors and give the money to the next person to be evicted from the valley. While this causes confusion, the Three Mesquiteers lack the evidence that will cause an investigation. They decide to take jobs from Don Luis as hunters for Los Capaqueroes, but Stony recognizes Don Luis as Pierce, but it is too late as our heroes are discovered to be the vigilantes and sentenced to be shot. Decent B western, but nothing really new and exciting considering there was never any chemistry between Wayne and Corrigan & Terhune and it shows here. I do like the Los Capaqueroes idea but the film lacks much action and the resolution to the film is sort of a downer. Remade w/ Don Barry as Arizona Raiders and again (loosely) w/ Vincent Price in the Baron of Arizona. Rating, based on B westerns, 6.

I imagine that Night Riders was probably done immediately after Stagecoach was finished shooting, but was not out yet. No one knew that it would be the film that would make John Wayne a huge star, so he was back doing the Three Mesquiteers western series for Republic Pictures. It is the film listed immediately after Stagecoach on IMDb and in the Films of John Wayne book.In this entry Wayne, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune and a whole bunch of other honest folk are being tossed off their ranches by a man showing up with titles from an old Spanish land grant. The only problem here is that you're dealing with the Three Mesquiteers who ain't gonna take this lying down.The three of them, Duke included, decide to go Zorro on the bad guys. They dress up as three stylish bandits with caped hoods and call themselves, Los Capequeros. They rob the rent collectors from the "Don" and give it back to the ranchers. Even sheriff Kermit Maynard is sympathetic to them.What makes Night Riders interesting is the fact that the Three Mesquiteers go calling on President James A. Garfield who is making a goodwill trip out west. They are looking to elude the rent collectors and break in on President Garfield while he's reading in bed. Don't say much for Presidential security, but they put up their guns and Garfield doesn't give them away. And he offers to help if they can get the evidence after the Mesquiteers tell their tale.Of course Garfield never went west in the brief three months he had as President in 1881 before an assassin shot him in Washington's Union station. Oddly enough his successor Chester A. Arthur did make a trip west, a well publicized good will trip that was worked into the plot of the Robert Taylor western, Cattle King which I also reviewed. Garfield's shooting was worked in, albeit in a minor way, in the climax of Night Riders.The Garfield connection does make Night Riders somewhat interesting to watch. And the Three Mesquiteer films were a bit above average of the ordinary B picture westerns of the time.I hope no one sees that title and assumes some cartoon cat guest starred with the Duke in one of his films.