Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Powerful

Disapointment

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the most interesting of the Three Mesquiteer films has the guys getting involved in an archaeological expedition to find a hidden treasure guarded by a legendary Indian cult, presumably descendants of the Aztecs because they believe in human sacrifice. At least Robert Livingston almost ends up being barbecued at the stake.Mary Russell's father and his partner went off in search of the cult and the partner came back, but he's murdered in one of those locked room puzzles. Despite or maybe because of the fact the Three Mesquiteers were in the room they go along to find a treasure and capture a killer.These modern Aztec type cultists have kept up with modern weaponry because of their leader and when you find out who it is that will be self explanatory. I'm agreeing that the film does resemble some of those cult Kharis mummy films some of which were not all that good. The end is a rather spectacular climax where the cultists are wiped out. Mother nature has more to do with it than the Mesquiteers.Mesquiteer fans should enjoy this.

By the humble standards of the Three Mesquiteers, this is definitely one of the more exciting entries in the series with plenty of fast-moving action – especially in the 53-minutes TV cutdown version which seems to be the only one now available on DVD. There is a bit of a jump in the storyline where the excision has been made, but it's easy enough to paste together what's happening even if the events are dime-novel absurd. It's amazing to think that director Mack Wright managed to shoot this one in only eight days. Diminutive heroine, Mary Russell, played mostly bits in her Hollywood career (1934 through 1938) – and no wonder. She's an attractive little lass and she knows her lines, but that's about all that can be said for her. Also on the plus side, we see and hear very little of Max Terhune's Elmer in this TV version, although there was probably not much more in the full 59 minutes theatrical offering – especially when we remember that 59 minutes would translate to under 57 minutes on TV and DVD. (My DVD is Volume 32 in Platinum's Great American Western series).

There were a long string of Three Mesquiteer films during the 1930s. The films consisted of three friends who were government agents in the old West and the films were very low-budget B-movies. However, the lineup changed all the time--and there must have been about two dozen different lineups--including, for a while, a young John Wayne. Among the most consistent lineup for the series were Crash Corrigan, Robert "Whistling Skull" begins with a member of a lost expedition arriving in town. He begins talking about some lost Indian treasure--and then is suddenly killed with a poison-tipped knife. So, the Boys and their new friends all go in search of the lost party--and possibly find the treasure as well. Livingston and Ray Terhune. Oddly, Terhune's shtick was having Elmer (his ventriloquist dummy) and--a very strange thing indeed for the West! While I'll quickly admit that these weren't particularly good films (I've seen a lot with this particular lineup), they were reasonably fun and worth seeing if you like the genre. However, among the Mesquiteer films I have seen, this must be the very worst--mostly because the acting is simply atrocious. I am not exaggerating when I say that many of the extras repeat their lines like they are reading them off cue cards...and they were dyslexic! In addition, the plot, though original, was truly bizarre.By the way, in addition to the weird plot and bad acting, the language was often amazingly offensive--even for 1937. My favorite line is "...those dirty ignorant savages" when members of the search party meet up with natives.

Usually it eludes me, but sometimes the past comes and smacks me with its ridiculous tragedies. Ridiculous now.When I park my car at work, it is opposite the back of what used to be a Woolworth's drug store. I see a misused window. That is where "coloreds" had to get their food, lest they annoy the whites. This was in my lifetime. I visited that store as a child when this was the law. Now, the building is a bar owned by an African American sports figure.Recently, I saw "Avatar," and celebrated the defeat of the interlopers. Avatar was (still is as I write this) a big movie. But it is a very small presence in movieland compared to this, because this is merely one of thousands. Written in a day, shot in a week, in the theaters in a months and discarded a month later. The same characters, the same plots. I count this as one face of ten thousand movies.Here is the plot: white guys from far away come to "Indian territory." They are looking for an ancient collection of artifacts. They happen to have value when melted down, but are also central to a religious tradition thousands of years old. Natives try to protect this treasure, and they are the BAD guys!This is a pastiche: part jungle safari, part mystery, part comedy, part western. It is, in fact, an "every-movie." The whistling skull is a cliff in the shape of an Indian face spooked out to look like a skull. It is, predictably, hollow.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.