The third of eight
Bob Steele Westerns produced by bargain-basement company Metropolitan, Mesquite Buckaroo was a slight improvement over its predecessor, due mainly to a couple of campfire songs penned by Johnny Lange and Lew Porter and warbled by the now forgotten Bruce Dane. The diminutive Steele plays Bob Allen of the Bar A Ranch, whose Aunt Sarah (Juanita Fletcher) bets her neighbor (
Frank LaRue) that Bob will win the rodeo against the Circle B's Luke Williams (
Ted Adams). Realizing they can make a fortune if the reigning champion, Bob, loses, a couple of crooks indulge in a bit of kidnapping. About to be disqualified for tardiness, Bob, who has overpowered his captors, arrives just in time to beat the competition. This lightweight, potentially amusing bit of Western frivolity was thoroughly defeated by Metropolitan Pictures' slipshod production methods and the casting of amateurs (leading lady Carolyn Curtis, especially) in key roles. As he had in Steele's previous effort,
Smoky Trails (1939),
Carleton Young once again ably took care of the skullduggery, this time for some reason billing himself as Gordon Roberts. Veteran slapstick comic Snub Pollard added little to the overall enjoyment of Mesquite Buckaroo. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide