Old Movie Time

I wasn't very old when this movie was released, but these old cowboys sure was good entertainment for the folks in the country. This movie is The Riders of the Whistling Skull and is not a typical cowboy and Indian shoot-'em-up, although there are cowboys and Indians a-plenty in this 1937 black and white. It seems there is an expedition searching for the Lost City of Tu-ka-ta (?) in the Wild West Mountains near the ranch of the Three Mesquiteers, one of whom professes to be a detective because he reads The Detective pulp magazine. A member of the expedition is killed by someone in the party and the search is on to find the killer, It could be one of the Indians or one of the white men but at this point no one knows who did it and the expedition vows to continue because a female member's father is missing and she won't give up until he's found. An Indian "Cult" attacks the party to prevent it from finding the Lost City and the wagon with all the water is lost as it goes tumbling down the canyon. The party decides to search the Whistling Skull for water and the Lost City. The Skull is a series of caves that whistle when the wind blows through them.

The Indians attack again and have the party surrounded in the Skull and the only way to get help is to throw a rope over the cliff and scale down the mountain to the horses, which the Three Mesquiteers manage to do, but are attacked on the way down by an Indian who manages to cut the rope which finally gives away and the last Mesquiteer has quite a drop to a ledge where he has to fight off three Indians for a while until they capture him.

To the rescue comes the Sheriff and the posse who decided to follow the expedition and there is a royal shoot-out, freeing the Mesquiteer and the girl's father who had been found earlier tied up in one of the rooms in the cave.

Starring in it was Ray "Crash" Corrigan, Bob Livingston and Max Terhune. There weren't many close-ups in the movie, but there were flashes of bright light and a big zero appearing for a mini-second. I assume this happened at the change of reels. All in all, I enjoyed watching it, bringing back memories of my childhood in the church where movies were shown once a month on Saturday night.

The movie was one in a collection of Heroes of the Old West DVDs.