JohnHowardReid By the humble standards of the Three Mesquiteers, this is definitely one of the more exciting entries in the series with plenty of fast-moving action – especially in the 53-minutes TV cutdown version which seems to be the only one now available on DVD. There is a bit of a jump in the storyline where the excision has been made, but it's easy enough to paste together what's happening even if the events are dime-novel absurd. It's amazing to think that director Mack Wright managed to shoot this one in only eight days. Diminutive heroine, Mary Russell, played mostly bits in her Hollywood career (1934 through 1938) – and no wonder. She's an attractive little lass and she knows her lines, but that's about all that can be said for her. Also on the plus side, we see and hear very little of Max Terhune's Elmer in this TV version, although there was probably not much more in the full 59 minutes theatrical offering – especially when we remember that 59 minutes would translate to under 57 minutes on TV and DVD. (My DVD is Volume 32 in Platinum's Great American Western series).

tedg Usually it eludes me, but sometimes the past comes and smacks me with its ridiculous tragedies. Ridiculous now.When I park my car at work, it is opposite the back of what used to be a Woolworth's drug store. I see a misused window. That is where "coloreds" had to get their food, lest they annoy the whites. This was in my lifetime. I visited that store as a child when this was the law. Now, the building is a bar owned by an African American sports figure.Recently, I saw "Avatar," and celebrated the defeat of the interlopers. Avatar was (still is as I write this) a big movie. But it is a very small presence in movieland compared to this, because this is merely one of thousands. Written in a day, shot in a week, in the theaters in a months and discarded a month later. The same characters, the same plots. I count this as one face of ten thousand movies.Here is the plot: white guys from far away come to "Indian territory." They are looking for an ancient collection of artifacts. They happen to have value when melted down, but are also central to a religious tradition thousands of years old. Natives try to protect this treasure, and they are the BAD guys!This is a pastiche: part jungle safari, part mystery, part comedy, part western. It is, in fact, an "every-movie." The whistling skull is a cliff in the shape of an Indian face spooked out to look like a skull. It is, predictably, hollow.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Cristi_Ciopron This short mystery, possibly drastically overvalued by the very few people who know it, constitutes nonetheless a nice surprise to be offered by a phase in the evolution of the genre rather given to cliché.When movie culture lacks, the praises and superlatives generously granted by the half-wits serve only to expose the ignorance involved. Kids, first learn some western; watch lots of such flicks, even read widely, and then pronounce solemn superlatives.For those who lavish superlatives on this flick as if it were Hawks suddenly turned into Buñuel, it might be well to watch some WILD WILD WEST episodes or some European westerns from decades ago—for some genuinely creepy westerns.The script drags the Mesquiteers into an adventure which is not specifically their own brand.

dbborroughs I was never a western fan. It was made worse when we first got cable back in 1976 and several of the stations were heavily running the black and white programmers where only the names changed slightly from film to film. What ever it was never hooked me into liking westerns. John Wayne was never a favorite of mine as a result.But as time went on I did find I will watch a western now and again and have raved about several, Unforgiven, Tombstone and Silverado for example, when really good ones come along.But I've never been a fan of the genre, so when Sinister promised something different in their catalog I jumped.The film is one of the Three Mesquiteer series that came from a a long running series of novel and was turned into a long running series of films. John Wayne was one of the original trio of ranch hands who do good in the West.The plot involves an expedition to find a lost Indian city and a lost pair of scientists who earlier went looking for it. Supposedly its located in a Whistling Skull. Just as the party is to leave one of the scientists shows up speaks of finding the city and being taken prisoner only to be killed before revealing the exact location. The Mesquiteers, who had found the now dead scientist, tag along as the party sets out in order to find the city and the one remaining scientist.The movie moves like the wind, running in this print only 53 minutes, and has just about every western cliché you can think of and then some. Assuming you haven't seen a bunch of these in a while its worth seeing, and even if you have seen a bunch of these its still fun.Its simply a fun frantic mystery western, recommended.