Border Phantom

Border Phantom stars Bob Steele who when he was a B movie Cowboy hero, I always got the impression he was trying to be a James Cagney out west. Steele was a short man like Cagney and always played it with a chip on his shoulder.

Republic did not do right by it Mr. Steele at least in this one. I guess that after Gene Autry and Roy Rogers the other cowboy heroes got the leavings. This was definitely a story need not to have been filmed as Bob Steele puts an end to of all things, a racket involving arranged Chinese marriages. Who'd a thunk it.

Bob Steele was certainly capable of better things, just see him in The Big Sleep. And he was always great as a villain like in The Big Sleep or South of St. Louis with Joel McCrea.

He should have concentrated there instead of making these forgettable oaters.

This is without a doubt the worst Bob Steele film I have ever seen. While I wouldn't go so far as to give it a 1 like bkoganbing did, I sure thought it was terrible. What's worse is that some of Bob Steele's westerns were quite good, so I knew he was capable of much, much better.

The film is set in the modern day and is about a murdered entomologist. The sheriff is about the dumbest guy I've ever seen in one of these films and he's intent on arresting the dead guy's niece only minutes after he's arrived to investigate. However, an unknown benefactor helps her escape jail--and immediately the moron sheriff assumes Larry (Bob Steele) did it--mostly because Larry had the unmitigated gall to be a stranger in town AND question the idiot sheriff's competence. Naturally, good 'ol Larry didn't do it and, surprisingly, the leads point towards a guy smuggling in illegal aliens!!!

The plot is certainly bizarre, but this isn't the only thing working against this terrible film. For some odd reason, the writer felt it was important to pepper the movie with jokes--none of which were funny or worked in the least. Add to that the most shiftless and annoying sidekick in movie history and you have the makings of a lousy B-film. Not 100% terrible...just 98.7%!

Fast-moving Steele programmer. Then too, what other oater of that time or any time features a hog farm, "entomologists", and girls in wooden barrels. Okay, maybe it's not the best Steele entry, but it does have its points. Then again, maybe you can figure out the plot, something about bug fanciers and girl smugglers, but who cares. Good guys, bad guys, and a cute girl are enough for front-row geezers like me. Here it's the sweet-faced Harley Wood giving us a break from the ugly guys. There's lots of hard riding and flying fists, but little fast shooting but that's okay since nobody aims anyway. Then too the action never leaves LA's really un-scenic scrublands. But please, Mr. Producer, bring back Gabby Hayes or even Andy Devine because the comic relief is from a guy, Don Barclay, who's about as funny as a lump of coal that he somehow resembles. Now Steele may not be an iconic Wayne or Eastwood, but his small frame's about as energetic and convincing as the bigger guys. Too bad we don't get more of his hard-eyed stares here. I think he could go toe-to-toe with Eastwood in a steely stare down, any time. All in all, the hour's a decent programmer that has its oddities and never drags, so give it a try.

Entomologist Frank Ball is bughunting near the Mexican border. He tells his niece, Harley Wood, to take a message in to sheriff Horace Murphy. As Miss Wood goes to her horse, she hears a shot and rushes back to find her uncle dead. Soon she finds herself in jail under suspicion of murder. Can wandering cowboy Bob Steele and comic sidekick Don Barclay untangle the mystery?

Bob Steele's westerns were a lot slicker now that they were being financed and released by Republic Pictures, and there's little doubt that director S. Roy Luby, whose other job was editor, knew how to order the set-ups for under-rated cameraman Jack Greenhaigh efficiently. The problem is with the script by Fred Myton, who had been writing silents and B movies since 1916. Steele was an action star, whose athletic and acrobatic movements had been well served by direction by his father, Robert Bradbury. In this one, he has to spend most of his time talking. He doesn't even get into a fistfight with anyone until 51 minutes into the movie, and then all the action shots are chopped up by cross-cutting.

Myton's script also uses standard tropes: dumb cops, mysterious Orientals who dress in traditional Chinese garb in the middle of the American desert... with changes of costumes the whole movie could have been shifted to an urban setting with little loss. While the actors give good performances, and that's nice, that's not what's supposed to distinguish westerns; good westerns, even B westerns, require open vistas, horses, action and more of the culture that makes the West different from downtown than a comic sidekick wearing chaps.

BORDER PHANTOM has been rerun of late on GRIT Network, where I caught it after many years. However, it's long been out on vhs and dvd. That said, I agree with several reviewers that it's a strange vehicle for a star as big as Bob Steele.

First and foremost, these films were made for a quick buck; the studio and for the star, and promptly disgarded. However, this film, which actually is a modern day western, has Steele surrounded by some not too bright badges, a murder investigation involving a dead man's niece and a smuggling operation. There is also less action here, which could have made up for the rest as Bob Steele was a two-fisted hero, much in the style of Tom Mix and Buck Jones.

The only plus is the director saw fit to photograph some fairly good outdoor scenes, when Steele finally gets onto a horse. That probably sums up most B-westerns of this period, the outdoor footage, generally lensed in the upper desert of southern California, the more remote and scenic the better. The western units (and there were so many of them in Hollywood at the time), had the very best on location sites at their disposal, and if they chose wisely, could profit handsomely by working a few days inside a cheap studio and the rest outdoors.

I gave this 5 stars only because of Bob Steele, a cinematic western icon and the on location work. For film completists. You be the judge. Re-issued on dvd and also in box sets with other western features and/or a collection of Steele's films.