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

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

bkoganbing Pals of the Saddle find the Three Mesquiteers getting involved with a group of war profiteers in the time before World War I. Somebody has the bright idea to smuggle something called Monium out of the USA in violation of the Neutrality Act for use to make poison gas. People in 1938 still remembered the horror of poison gas used in the war and also recently by Mussolini in his invasion and takeover of Ethiopia. That made it a topical film and gave it a dimension we can't appreciate today.The bad guys use a salt mine as a cover and chlorides are what makes up salt. Why the scriptwriters were concocting some fictitious element called Monium to use when they could have just as easily said chlorine which was in the some of the poison gas used in World War I is beyond me.Doreen McKay is an undercover U.S. Secret Service agent who gets Wayne involved in her investigation when her partner is killed. Wayne takes the partner's place and nearly gets himself done in. Good thing Corrigan and Terhune are around. There's an exciting shoot out at the end as the Mesquiteers stop the wagon train of Monium from crossing the border. This was Wayne's first Mesquiteer film and it certainly was a step up from his Monogram films of the middle thirties. He and Doreen McKay have an interesting relationship, sort of like what Roy Rogers and Dale Evans had in some of their Republic Pictures.Pals of the Saddle is not however the best of Wayne's Mesquiteer films. Still it's entertaining and will please fans of the eternal Duke.

classicsoncall In 1938, Republic Pictures decided to use Robert Livingston in feature films, including "The Lone Ranger Rides Again" serial. Needing a replacement for Livingston in The Three Mesquiteers franchise, they turned to John Wayne who came along to Republic in 1936 with the merger of several 'B' film companies. Wayne had appeared in sixteen films for Paul Malvern's Lone Star Pictures group released through Monogram. Though he made six films for Universal in 1936/37, they weren't very successful, so back at Republic, he became Stony Brooke, teaming up with Ray "Crash" Corrigan as Tucson Smith, and Max Terhune as Lullaby Joslin; "Pals Of The Saddle" was their first effort together. There's no doubt as to who the headliner was, as lobby cards and posters of the films during Wayne's run highlight his up and coming star status. I don't know when Terhune first began to use a ventriloquist dummy, but Elmer appears here with a limited speaking role, his parts would grow as the series progressed!The story itself is a fairly spirited one, accompanied by a lively musical soundtrack. I had to chuckle over the main plot element, a fictitious material called 'monium' was being mined and smuggled to a foreign government by the villains of the piece to be used as an ingredient in a poisonous gas. At the time historically, America was trying to maintain it's neutrality while Europe was being threatened by Hitler. More than one of the Charlie Chan films of the era used a similar story line, and I had to do a quick double take to stay on track. These later Mesquiteers films seemed to exist in somewhat of a 'time warp', as 1880 style cowboys did their thing as the modern 1930's managed to intrude. In the opening scene, newsreel stock footage is used to portray a military battle with an armored tank plainly visible!Stony and the boys decide to help out a female government agent (Doreen McKay) smoke out the bad guys involved in the smuggling operation. In a somewhat convoluted series of events, the good guys and bad guys manage to trade the upper hand a few times before it's all over. During one of these, Lullaby springs Stony from the locals holding him for a murder frame-up using a 'Chicken Inspector' badge. I got a kick out of Judge Hastings (Joseph Forte), the brains of the bad guy outfit, as the 3-M's take off in a covered wagon with the contraband monium on board. Calling his men to action, he yells "...we want to try and save that gold." He must have gotten his story lines mixed up! Wayne, Corrigan and Terhune would remain together for six Mesquiteers movies, with Ray Hatton taking Max's place in two more playing the role of Rusty Joslin, Lullaby's brother. In the latter part of Wayne's run, Republic and director John Ford tapped him for the lead role in "Stagecoach". When Wayne eventually left the Mesquiteers, he in turn was replaced as circumstances would have it, by Robert Livingston. The trio series would continue for a few more years with even more replacements. Between 1936 and 1943, Republic churned out a total of fifty one of these oaters!At the present time, AMC seems to be running the John Wayne Mesquiteers films on an alternating schedule during it's Saturday and Sunday lineup. If you're a fan, you owe it to yourself to catch at least one of these featuring a young John Wayne before he became 'The Duke', and you'll have a lot of fun to boot!

bsmith5552 "Pals of the Saddle" is the first of eight Three Mesquiteer series westerns that John Wayne made for Republic's 1938-39 season. During this time, "Stagecoach" would be released, and the rest, as they say, is history.Comparing this film to some of his earlier efforts, one can see how far Wayne had developed his on-screen presence. He appeared much more confident and more at ease. In one scene he even impersonates a grizzled and hokey prospector complete with old clothes and whiskers. As was the case in many of the Mesquiteer films, this one is set in "modern" (the late 30s) times.In this outing he joins fellow Mesquiteers Ray "Crash" Corrigan and Max Terhune as "Stoney Brooke" in an effort to foil the evil doers plans to smuggle banned war materials out of the country to an unnamed foreign power to manufacture poison gas. At this juncture, America was still selling its neutrality in respect of the European conflict.The film is still quite entertaining and is enhanced by Wayne's performance. I was a little disappointed not to see any of Republic's familiar roster of bad guys in the picture. The supporting cast was for me totally unrecognizable. Anyway, Stoney Brooke is a long way from "Singin" Sandy Saunders.

Michael O'Keefe Remember Saturday mornings at the movies? This is a perfect example of the memories. Almost an hour of good guys, bad guys, pretty gal in trouble and gun play. Three saddle pals stop foreign spies from smuggling a dangerous chemical into Mexico. The chemical is used to make poison gas. Fast horses and stray bullets travel with the familiar generic background music.John Wayne, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan and Max Terhune are the saddle pals. Doreen McKay is the government agent that needs help catching the bad guys.