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Not copyright 1942 by Range Busters, Inc. Released through Monogram Pictures Corporation: 4 September 1942. 58 minutes.SYNOPSIS: The unusually complicated story of this 16th entry in the series, is a little difficult to follow. But if you pay close attention, you'll just manage to keep up with it. Not that you'll bother, because the whole affair, what with a loose talking dummy (in both senses of the word loose) and a hero with a bent for nasty practical pranks, is in many ways so childish, it's not really worth the effort. In brief, The Range Busters are enlisted to ferret out a gang of highwaymen who specialize in stealing Wells Fargo cash boxes from the Arizona stagecoach. COMMENT: Of mild interest for rabid fans of Corrigan and company, this Range Busters entry, filmed against the serviceable but somewhat lackluster scenery of the Corrigan Ranch, does hold out three or four joys for the general viewer in the acting department. It's good to see Kermit Maynard filling the shoes of a bad guy and it's always great to find Charles King up to his old tricks. Another favorite heavy, Jack Ingram, can be spotted in a smallish but odd part as the local sheriff. But the real flavor of this entry is provided by Steve Clark who really revels in his role as a corrupt stage driver. And for once, Steve has the best lines in the movie! The action spots are directed at a fast clip (with running inserts yet!) and, as inferred above, there's probably enough fast riding and quick-on-the-draw shooting to satisfy the inveterate fans. As usual, Mr King is handed a couple of songs, one of which he renders upside down. And also as usual, Mr Terhune and his poorly animated dummy (who receives an inordinate number of close-ups) waste a fair amount of our time.DEATHLESS DIALOGUE. Corrupt stage driver (mildly chiding the leader of a group of masked bandits who has his eyes set on the cash box): "Say, this isn't the spot where you were supposed to hold us up." Bandit's quick-as-a-flash retort: "I liked this spot better."

The Range Busters - Ray "Crash" Corrigan, John "Dusty" King, and Max "Alibi" Terhune come to the aid of some friends who find their ranch surrounded by highway-robbers. Before their arrival, their friend discovers his partner with stolen loot and shoots it out before being framed for the hold-ups by villains Charles King and Kermit Maynard.An enjoyable, straight-foreword entry in Monogram Pictures' Range Busters series, the successor to Republic's Three Mesquiteers, this has some good action scenes and an atmospheric (though probably canned) music score.Both corny and creepy are several scenes where Terhune's ventriloquist dummy "Elmer" talks and moves independently! I know these Saturday matinée B-westerns were made for a primarily juvenile audience, but this is just too silly!In the final scene when Terhune picks up Elmer, who just finished moving without him, a hand can be briefly glimpsed pulling out of the dummy and disappearing under the chair!

The Range Busters were clearly a lower budget version of Monogram's Three Mesquiteers series, hard to imagine for a 'B' Western unless you've seen a few hundred of these and could actually tell the difference. Twenty four Range Busters films were made, the first sixteen featuring two of the original Mesquiteers, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan and Max 'Alibi' Terhune. Joining them was John 'Dusty' King, and what I find interesting is that the trio was allowed to use their own names as characters in the pictures. I don't recall seeing one of these before, and interestingly, "Arizona Stagecoach" was the sixteenth and final picture of the series that the original principals appeared in. The plot for this one is fairly standard, a corrupt Wells Fargo Station Agent (Charles King) is behind a string of stagecoach robberies as the Range Busters are called in to investigate. Agent Douglas (King) sets up local rancher Ernie Willard (Roy Harris) to take the fall for the robberies, but the Busters are onto him like white on rice. Following your usual gunfights and horse chases, the Range Busters bring the baddies to justice. As an aside, this was the third 'B' Western in a row I've watched in which Charles King appeared. In the other two, "Feud of the Range" and "Forbidden Trails", King was easily recognized as the disheveled overweight henchman who reported directly to the film's main villain. Here, he IS the main villain, and in contrast, sports an uncharacteristic suit and tie while masterminding the hold-ups. Oh yeah, there's another familiar face on hand if you're a Mesquiteers fan. Max Terhune has his dummy sidekick Elmer along for the ride. You'll be scratching your head though, as Elmer appears most of the time talking and moving around without benefit of Terhune at the controls; in fact no one at the controls. Don't know how that makes any sense, but matinée fans of these oaters didn't require much for entertainment. Come to think of it, there are times when neither do I.

Average Range Busters fare with the usual action scenes (chases, shoot outs etc.) interspersed by songs from Dusty King - one of which he warbles while suspended upside down from a tree - and comic interludes featuring Max Terhune and his dummy, Elmer.Incidentally, this is one of those entries in which Elmer moves and talks when Terhune is nowhere to be seen. Some critics have suggested that this sort of thing is silly and implausible but, is not the whole B western world a fantastic and mythical universe bearing no resemblance to reality? Anyway, I'm an Elmer fan so, in the words of the little wooden man himself "what's it to yuh?"