Stage to Mesa City (1947)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fresh and Exciting

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I hope PRC gave the horses extra hay because they earned it, all that hard riding around greater LA. Reviewer 398 is right. Some of that riding time should have been devoted to developing the plot, which is a promising one—who is the brains behind the gang and how is it he shows up at just the right time to foil LaRue's action. But dialogue costs money and PRC was not known for its lavish budgets, to say the least. Actually, it's a pretty good LaRue with a solid cast, lots of action, and a fairly good story. Even Fuzzy's often lame hijinks are at a minimum. A central point to notice. When Lash disarms a gun-toter with his whip, it's done in two shots—of him first cocking and letting go, and second of the whip end snapping loose the gun. We never get the entire sequence in a single master shot. Separating the sequence into two shots does cut down on the number of retakes should LaRue miss his target in a master shot. But it also means we don't get to see how good he really is with a whip. Nonetheless, he wields the leather strap like he knows what he's doing, which was more than enough to satisfy us Front Row kids back in 1947.And Janice (reviewer), I hate to say so, but the reason you don't see your heart-throb LaRue "smooch a damsel" is because of Front Row kids like me. If there were any girls at those matinees, I don't remember them, and if we 10-year boys had seen Lash in a love scene— well, ugh!—as we guys all knew, cowboys only kissed their horses, which for us was the way the world should be. Anyhow, the world changes and thankfully so do little boys, but I admit to still enjoying a gumdrop or two while watching the guy with the whip hard ride across the screen. As he does in Stage to Mesa City.

Encore Westerns featured a six-gun salute to Lash La Rue today, and I would have been remiss if I didn't take in at least one of his pictures. In this story, the black clad cowboy hero rides in to Mesa City as Marshal Cheyenne Davis along with partner and deputy Fuzzy Jones (Fuzzy St. John). They've been sent to help the owner of a stage company who's on the brink of foreclosure unless he can land a government mail contract. Said owner, John Watson (Steve Clark) is dispatched early by the bad guys, and things look pretty bleak for his son and daughter who plan to continue running the business.It wouldn't be too far off to say that a good half of this picture's run time is taken up by endless chase scenes back and forth with the villains creating havoc all over the countryside. Cheyenne and Fuzzy are just close enough each time to ride in and make the save. There's a scene where bad guy Baxter (Marshall Reed) goes for his gun to draw down on 'Chey', and he strips the gun from the outlaw's hand with the bull-whip with the kind of confidence that made La Rue a 'B' Western matinée favorite in the Forties.For this outing, Fuzzy has a gimmick where he carries around a figurine of Sitting Bull for good luck, which comes in handy in one of the shoot 'em up scenes. He's always good for a chuckle if only for his appearance alone, but he gets his share of pratfalls in during the fight scenes as usual.Pretty Jennifer Holt makes another appearance in a Lash film as one of the Watson siblings. You'll also see her with Lash and Fuzzy in "The Fighting Vigilantes" and "Ghost Town Renegades". The character of her brother Bob was portrayed by Brad Slaven.The story's finale of course is never in doubt. There's an early hook thrown the viewer when lawyer Baxter keeps throwing out references to the unseen boss calling the shots. It would have been to easy to lay that one on the disinterested sheriff (Lee Morgan), but instead the film makers settled on the post office master in a wheelchair. Attempting to get away from Cheyenne, he makes a lame move with a blanket before getting boxed up by the marshal and returned for postage due.

Lash LaRue was the most interesting B western hero to come along after WWII. Bearing a striking physical resemblance to Humphrey Bogart, he cut quite a figure in his all-black outfit while expertly wielding a bullwhip against the bad guys.STAGE TO MESA CITY is an entertaining vehicle for LaRue with almost non-stop action and an interesting mystery element. Silent era comic Fuzzy St John backs LaRue with some expert pratfalls as his actually helpful sidekick. Jennifer Holt is the attractive heroine. Marshall Reed and Terry Frost head up the bad guys, but take orders from a shadowy boss. Between wild shootouts and chase after chase, Lash tries to figure out the identity of this top villain.This film is action packed with several full gallop chases. It might actually be too action packed. The mystery is predictable as the casting leaves no doubt who the brainy boss will turn out to be. It might have been wise to sacrifice a chase here or there in order to build up the red herrings. It also would have helped to cast veteran villains in the red herring roles to keep the viewer guessing.All in all, though, a fast-paced treat for LaRue fans.

Since the comment from 2006 appears to be a competent remark from a Lash Larue aficionado, this review can pass on from general critique to cultural juxtaposition. Whip-wielding Lash strips guns out of henchmen's hands at about the 20:20 and 37:05 marks of this 51:39-long flick (faster-triggered opponents may have paraphrased Sean Connery's famous UNTOUCHABLES line: "It's just like a Frenchman to bring a whip to a gunfight" while dispatching the hero with a well-placed shot). Unlike Frank Sinatra's tormentor in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, handicapper subterfuge seems less character-driven than plot-driven here. Despite this script contrivance (and enough bling on Lash's horse to give him a weight handicap worthy of Man-O-War), this film is more watchable than that other drama about delivering U.S. mail, Kevin Costner's THE POSTMAN. Finally, the apparent disinterest of the Mesa City sheriff in apprehending his town's nefarious element--leaving outside troubleshooters to insure the triumph of good over evil--could have been ripped from today's headlines nearly anywhere in America.