The Phantom of the Range

When old man Hiram Moore dies, two rumors float about: one is that as a miser he buried a lot of money somewhere on his ranch and secondly, that his ghost roams the ranch. A gang of crooks led by Brandon, believe Hiram left a map of the location of the treasure in a painting of Hiram. At the auction selling off Hiram's possessions and ranch, the crooks overbid on the portrait thus making Jerry Lane (Tyler) and Hiram's granddaughter Jeanne Moore (Beth Marion) suspicion. Jeanne soon runs out of money but Jerry has money from the sale of his ranch so buys both the painting and Hiram's ranch! Jerry is quite smitten with Jeanne even though they had only met briefly a few hours prior to the auction. With the ranch comes an English butler, Eddie Parsons, who seems to be a bit light-fingered early in the movie. Sammy Cohen as Eddie provides the comic relief and does a pretty good job of it but as the previous reviewer noted, he forgot his English accent in a couple of scenes. There is also lurking about a spooky housekeeper who was paid by Brandon to spy on Jerry. Things heat up when Jerry is unjustly (of course) accused of murder. This was a pleasant little Western but not as good, to me, as Rip Roarin' Buckeroo, which had the exact same lead players – and same beautiful scenery.

Tom Tyler stars in The Phantom Of The Range, a western from poverty row outfit Victory Pictures. In this film Tyler buys the ranch of an old miser whose granddaughter Beth Marion he's taken a liking to. With cash on the barrel head he buys the ranch out from under the old miser's neighbor Forest Taylor.

Taylor has hired a cowboy to ride around in a Ku Klux Klan like bedsheet to scare off any intruders. Sad too for his sake that Tom Tyler doesn't scare or fool so easily.

Sammy Cohen Jewish character actor plays a gentlemen's gentlemen who hires out to Tyler. Soledad Jimenez plays a treacherous housekeeper in Taylor's pay.

The film plays more like a cheap mystery than a western and it had possibilities not to be realized in a poverty row outfit.

Brandon (Forrest Taylor) sets out to find the treasure of Hiram Moore (John Elliott). On the other side, Tom Tyler meets Moore's granddaughter, Beth Marion when she pretends to be dying of thirst in the desert. The battle really begins at the auction for the ranch and two most interesting characters are introduced, the Cockney gentlemen's gentleman Sammy Cohen and the best henchman in the business, Charles King. During the ruckus some good cloak and dagger action with valet Perdita (Soledad Jimenez) and the sheriff (Richard Cramer). A lot of solid action and suspense with a romantic tension between Tyler and Marion.

Jerry Lane sells his ranch and decides to buy a new spread in a more peaceful area. As soon as he hits a new town, he buys in an auction a ranch said to be haunted by the ghost of the previous owner. This claim is started by Brandon, who plans to drive off any settlers so he can freely search the house for a map to the treasure the miserly owner hid. When Lane starts to feel intimidated, he, the old owner's daughter Jeanne, and the former butler Eddie, decide to stick it out, trying to locate the treasure and battle Brandon and his henchmen, while at the same time trying to avoid the prying eyes of Perdita, the homely housekeeper sent by Brandon, and a murder charge against Lane. The film coming from Victory obviously had crummy production values at best, but Tom Tyler was a great choice for the role (unlike Tim McCoy in the loose remake, Straight Shooter) and was able to carry the film quite well. Beth Marion was easy on the eyes as Jeanne (total opposite of Soledad Jiminez as Perdita) and nice characterizations from regular B actors Forrest Taylor, Charlie King, and Richard Cramer (in a good guy role as the sheriff). Sammy Cohen is okay as the butler, but his accent keeps on dropping. Good pacing by director Hill, who also doubles as the auctioneer at the film's beginning. Enjoyable oater. Rating, based on B-westerns, 7.