Stagecoach Outlaws

Not at all dull, "Stagecoach Outlaws" is still a pretty entertaining Western outing for PRC, a studio known for the lowest of low production values. Much of this is thanks to the charisma of star Buster Crabbe and the silent era antics of sidekick Al St. John. "Stagecoach Outlaws" is light-hearted, anything but "serious" and fairly well-written. There is some unintentional humor, such as in the stony faced performance of the female lead, who sits non-plussed as all the action goes down around her. Also Buster Crabbe at one point bumps into a "wall" which turns out to be no more than a curtain. But in this case PRC got a lot more onto the screen than what they spent. Part of this is due to good location scouting and well-chosen sets: a shabby hotel which serves as the gang's hideout is convincing as a "shabby hotel," rather than a hotel which looks shabby because it is, in reality, a PRC set. While "The Wild Bunch" it ain't (and oddly, there is one detail which this film may have inspired the much later Peckinpah classic) "Stagecoach Outlaws" is definitely a decent way to spend an hour.