Hit the Saddle
Directed by Mack V. Wright
Written by Oliver Drake based on a story by William Colt MacDonald
1937/USA
Republic Pictures
First viewing
[box] Lullaby Joslin: I know just how Stoney feels about it. Why, my third wife used to raise a ruckus every time I left her. Too bad about her, though. Took her out riding one day. She fell off her horse, broke her leg… we had to shoot her.[/box]
This Republic programmer is notable chiefly for containing an early performance by Rita Hayworth, still known at that time as Rita Cansino.
The Three Mesquiteers, Stony Brooke (Robert Livingston),Tuscon Smith, and Lullaby Johnson, are fast friends working on the same ranch. Stony has fallen in love with raven-haired saloon-hall dancer Rita (Hayworth) and she has marriage on her mind. Naturally, his two buddies will do anything to stop this.
On a separate track, evil rancher Rance McGowan rounds up protected wild horses and sells them. When his henchmen are caught, he develops an ingenious plan to get the protection lifted. He disguises his trained killer horse (!) to resemble a wild stallion and then looses the animal on nearby ranchers. When the horse kills the sheriff, the ranchers demand that it be killed and the protection be lifted. Stony swears that the wild stallion is no killer and demands a fair trial.
This is an early entry in Republic’s “Three Mesquiteers” series, which ran around 50 films from 1936 to 1943. It has all the classic elements of a series oater including a juvenile sidekick for the boys to identify with, a doomed and kissless romance, and a comic relief stock hero. In this case, it is Max Terhune’s Lullaby Joslin with his ventriloquist routines and hog impressions (seriously). That all said, I found it a rather relaxing hour of entertainment.
Clip – opening
