AllMovie

With Riders of the Rio Grande, Republic's 51-entry "Three Mesquiteers" western series came to an end. Starring as the Mesquiteers on this excursion are Bob Steele as Tucson Smith, Tom Tyler as Stony Brooke and Jimmy Dodd as Lullaby Joslin. It all begins when kindly town banker Pop Owens (Edward Van Sloan) arranges to have himself killed to make up for the financial excesses of his no-good son Tom (Rick Vallin). Pop mistakes our three heroes as the gunmen he's hired for the job, and the boys play along, hoping to dispel Owens' suicidal inclinations and to straighten out the prodigal Tom. Things really get hopping when the genuine "hit men" show up, leading to a no-holds-barred climactic fracas.