The second film in Republic's "Three Mesquiteers" series,
Ghost-Town Gold was released on October 26th, 1936. Directed by Joseph Kane it stars Robert Livingston as Stony Brooke, Ray Corrigan as Tucson Smith and Max Terhune as Lullaby Joslin. This film sees the trio help out the owner of a bank in the small town of Prospect when he is robbed by an unscrupulous promoter.
Like most of the B-westerns from this era,
Ghost-Town Gold presents
a very moralistic world-view. The reason that the Thornton's bank is
robbed is because he was leading the effort to drive Dirk Barrington and
his prize fighting, gambling riff-raff out of Prospect. Some of the
other leading townsfolk oppose Thornton because of all the money that
Barrington brings to town but he remains adamant. The banker is nearly
lynched when it is revealed that his bank is out of funds but, in the
end, when Barrington is revealed to be behind the robbery, he is
vindicated. Of course it's a bit ironic that the Mesquiteers attempt to
use the very things that Thornton opposes (ie. fighting and gambling) to
save his bank but it does lead to a pretty entertaining fight between
Ray Corrigan and Frank Hagney's 'Wild Man' Joe Kamatski.
This is Max Terhune's first outing as Lullaby Joslin, taking over from Syd Saylor who played Lullaby in the first movie. Terhune's take on the character is radically different from that of Saylor, who played Joslin as a good-hearted blow-hard, who pretends to be a westerner despite being a city boy, but earns his stripes by the end of the film by helping Stony and Tucson beat the bad guys. Terhune's Lullaby is more of a con-man, he cheats at cards and generally gets himself into trouble, from which his two friends often have to bail him out.
Ghost-Town Gold also
introduces Elmer, Lullaby's Ventriloquist Dummy which he wins by cheating at a carnival shell game.
In general the trio feels more well defined then they did in the first movie. Ray Corrigan's Tucson Smith is very much the straight man to Bob Livingston's Stony Brooke, always getting the trio involved in hair-brained schemes to help some vulnerable folks out. Here, he gets Tuscon into a prize fight, hoping they can raise enough money through betting to save the Thornton's bank. Livingston, Corrigan and Terhune would star in 14 of the 51 Mesquiteers films, and were together longer then any of the other actors.
Rounding out the cast in this installment are Burr Caruth as the upstanding banker Ben Thornton; Kay Hughes as his daughter Sabina who, surprisingly, is not a love interest for Stony; Milburn Morante as the crochety (and slightly crazy) old prospector Jake Rawlins; and LeRoy Mason, always a reliable heavy, as Dirk Barrington. The film also features western fixture Yakima Canutt in a small role as one of the henchman and Hank Worden makes an uncredited but memorable appearance in one scene.
Director Joseph Kane keeps the film moving at a steady clip and his handling of the action is assured. Kane was one of Republics most reliable directors, and would become their go-to-guy on many of their Roy Rogers pictures. He would later go on to helm major Hollywood westerns like
Dakota with John Wayne and
The Maverick Queenwork with Barbara Stanwyck before moving to television where he worked on shows like
Bonanza and
Rawhide.
Score: 7/10
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