Mustang! (1959)

Jack Buetel is Gabe Lee, a broken down rodeo cowboy who answers a newspaper ad and hires on to help out on the Bar L Ranch owned by Lou Hollis and his sister, Nancy.

Lou. a stubborn, no-nonsense ramrod, has been injured trying to catch and kill a wild mustang he fears will drive off his mares.

He’s not impressed with his new hand, and puts him to work mending fences.

But Nancy takes a liking to him, and both decide the wild mustang might just be worth saving.

That might be difficult now that Lou has hired Matt Hackett and his partner Duke to gun down the horse from their airplane.

Meanwhile, love is blossoming between Nancy and her new hired hand, a love they try to hide from Lou as long as possible, knowing he’ll disapprove.

Review:

Grade Z production and grade Z acting add up to a 1-star effort. Only one scene worth watching, when Nancy coaxes a horse to play dead so the injured Lou can slip aboard and ride off to safety.

This marked the final feature film for Buetel, who starred alongside Jane Russell in “The Outlaw,” then served out the rest of a seven-year contract with Howard Hughes without appearing in another movie.

His performance in that film was as wooden as they come, and he isn’t any better here. Of course, he has little help from a script that at one point has a supposedly wild mustang become tame thanks to one bullet in his shoulder.

Hard to believe the director is the same guy who helped “Will Penny” (1967) and “100 Rifles” (1969).

Directed by:
Tom Gries

Cast:
Jack Buetel … Gabe Lee
Madalyn Trahey … Nancy Hollis
Stephen Keyes … Lou Hollis
Milt Swift … Ranch owner
Bob Gilbert … Cowhand
Paul Spahn … Cowhand
Max M. Gilford … Cowhand
Autumn Moon … The Mustang

Runtime: 74 min.

Title tune: “Mustang”
sung by Champ Butler

Memorable lines:

Gabe Lee, about his rodeo past: “I averaged $10,000 a year, three years running.”
Nancy Hollis: “Then what?”
Gabe: “Bad dice. Bad women. Good whiskey. Too often. It was fun, though.”
Nancy: “Well, there isn’t any of that kind of fun around here.”

Lou to Gabe: “If I had two good legs and you still had two good arms I’d beat you to death, just like I promised.”
(Minutes before accepting him as a partner in the Bar L)