Veteran Poverty Row editor and director S. Roy Luby's "Cowboy Commandos" doesn't stir up much dust either as anti-Axis propaganda or a western. Ray Corrigan, Dennis More, and Max Terhune tangle with treacherous Nazi saboteurs in this vintage, but forgettable World War II, Monogram Studios' home front horse opera. This amiable hokum was produced during the war, and you can tell that nobody in the cast had to worry about being drafted to fill the ranks of the American military. Everybody here looks on the far side of 50, and several tough guys sport potbellies. Instinctively, you know that the Nazis don't stand a chance against our heroes. This is the kind of movie that the Office of War Information dreaded because it created the false impression that the enemy could easily be defeated. The villains in "Cowboy Commandos" are an incompetent bunch of buffoons, and it should come as no surprise that our heroes manage to round up these jaspers in 55-minutes or less. Hitler's undercover henchmen are doing their best to obstruct shipments of valuable magnesium. Magnesium was an important element in the construction of aircraft during the war, so the mine is a logical target for saboteurs. Later, these dastards plan to blow up the magnesium mine. Saddled with a laughable, one-dimensional plot, Luby and "Wild Horse Stampede" scenarist Elizabeth Beecher, adapting a Clark L. Paylow story, have little with which to work in this predictable western. The best that they can do to give a little edge to the story is to have the Nazis draw first blood. The evil Third Reichers have killed a local sheriff, who turns out to be the brother of our heroine, Joan Cameron (Evelyn Finley of "Black Market Rustlers"), and she must postpone in a bond selling rally in New York. Earlier, before she received news about her brother Dan, Joan was demonstrating her superb skill at riding a horse in a variety of positions. No sooner has the brave Crash Corrigan stepped in the dead sheriff's shoes than the sneaky villains promptly set out to kill him. Other than the earlier lawman whose death occurred off screen, you don't see any Nazis tumble until the grand finale when our heroes catch them moments before they push the plunger on the mine. The highlight of this hokum is comedian Johnny Bond warbling a song entitled "I'm Gonna Get the Fuehrer Sure as Shootin'" as he strums a broom.
Consider these lyrics:
"I'm gonna get der Führer, sure as shootin', With my rootin' tootin' .45, I swear. We'd get our man without much tally hootin'. So old pickle puss, I'm warning you, beware. With a noose around his head, And his body full of lead, I'll deliver him as dead as dead can be. I'm gonna get der Führer, sure as shootin', And that ought to make a hero out of me.
I'm gonna get der Führer, sure as shootin'. When we cowpokes go out huntin' we don't stop. I'll send his band of bandits all a scootin', And make a clean-up of the filthy lot. My lariat I'll twine Around that silly swine, And I'll spank the Nazi Heinie*, wait and see. I'm gonna get der Führer, sure as shootin', And that ought to make a hero out of me.
Aside from this hilarious doggerel, "Cowboy Commandos" plays everything straight, and funny man Max Terhune doesn't play a dumb cowpoke. You'll have to love low-budget oaters or be a student of anti-Axis propaganda to enjoy this marginal melodrama in boots and spurs. Some of the dialogue is amusing. Ultimately, while it is hopelessly patriotic, "Cowboy Commandos" doesn't amount to much.
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