Bandits of El Dorado (1951)

Review by All Movie Guide
Smiley Burnette performs some of his familiar nonsensical ditties accompanied by a couple of equally porcine gentlemen who call themselves "Mustard and Gravy." They were actually Frank Rice and Ernest L. Stokes, hillbilly performers who at one point rather disturbingly don blackface to perform their own "The Last Great Day". This harking back to the minstrel days of yore may have been considered "in period" by producer Colbert Clark but the inclusion seems an odd choice in what is otherwise a run-of-the-mill B-Western enlivened by Clayton Moore's strong performance in between his Lone Ranger duties. The masked avenger this time is not Moore, who is merely the villain's henchman, but Charles Starrett, and the film is one of Columbia's "Durango Kid" oaters. John Dehner, as the Boss Villain, is awarded some unusual trappings this time around, including a trap door leading to an underground river where untold outlaws apparently found an "eternal sanctuary," as Dehner puts it. With the Iverson Movie ranch standing in for Old Mexico and the no-nonsense Starrett defeating the bad guys in his accustomed way, Bandits of El Dorado remains pleasantly familiar on almost all fronts except for one startling fact: It has no leading lady! ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide