The 3 Mesuiteers was a huge series back in the 1930s and 1940s
The 1930 Western epic, The Big Trail, was intended to make the young John Wayne, only 23, a major star, but it failed commercially.
Wayne then spent years fronting “Poverty Row” Westerns, cheapie B-movies that were churned out fast.
One of Wayne’s most notable projects was The Three Mesquiteers, a serial Western that ran for 51 movies between 1936 and 1943.
In this Republic Pictures saga, Wayne did play the role of Stony Brooke eight times.
Not only is Stony the part Wayne played the most but all eight of his installments were released between 1938 and 1939.
The series revolved around the misadventures of the titular trio, Stony Brooke, Tucson Smith and Lullaby Joslin. These movies typically ran under an hour and were high-energy mixtures of traditional Westerns with more modern adventure films, with the series also featuring a revolving cast of actors.
|
John Wayne Three Mesquiteers Movies |
Release Year |
|---|---|
|
Pals of the Saddle |
1938 |
|
Overland Stage Raiders |
1938 |
|
Santa Fe Stampede |
1938 |
|
Red River Range |
1938 |
|
The Night Riders |
1939 |
|
Three Texas Steers |
1939 |
|
Wyoming Outlaw |
1939 |
|
New Frontier |
1939 |
Brooke was played by Bob Livington 29 times before Wayne replaced him, while Tom Tyler took over for the rest of The Three Mesquiteers franchise.
Ray Corrigan and Bob Steele played Tucson Smith, while Lullaby Joslin was played by four actors: Max Terhune, Jimmie Dodd, Rufe Davis and Syd Saylor. Wayne’s breakthrough role came in the form of 1939 classic Stagecoach, so he departed from The Three Mesquiteers following the New Frontier.
Following his stint on The Three Mesquiteers, Wayne avoided sequels for the next 40 years. Rooster Cogburn remains Wayne’s only true sequel, with this 1975 effort seeing him don the eyepatch again to reprise his Oscar-winning role as Rooster Cogburn. Secondly, Wayne’s penultimate film proved a pale shadow of True Grit, despite pairing Wayne with another icon in Katharine Hepburn.
Christian Slater later remade The Dawn Rider in 2012, co-starring Jill Hennessy and Donald Sutherland.
The Three Mesquiteers, directed by Ray Taylor, follows a group of World War I vets who head west to establish a farmstead but encounter unforeseen challenges.
The film is part of a Western series, showcasing themes of friendship and perseverance against adversity.
