Ghost Town

Harry Carey is almost enough to say, but "Ghost Town" has so much more, it's actually hard to know where to start with the praises.

Let's try, first, high praise for Earl Dwire (sometimes billed as Earl Dwyre) as Jim McCall, one of the two old desert rats who are partners in a mine and pretty much everything else in the settlement now known as Ghost Town.

Usually, Earl Dwire is the strong and silent bad guy, and he seems perfect as such. Here he has lines and a major role, and he carries it off beautifully. It was such a treat to watch him in a bigger part, and to realize he was a very talented actor.

My cousin Chuck Morrison (distant cousin, of course) also has a bigger-than-usual part, and even gets screen credit, which he too often didn't in a career spanning the years 1933 to 1944. It is very sad to me to see no information about him, not even here at IMDb. He has a good part here with some great dialogue and shows he should have had a longer and better film career.

One of my all-time favorite cowboy heroes, David Sharpe, is second billed and also shows he was a by gosh actor. Funny thing, though, he is generally thought of -- though not by me -- as a stunt man, and his last credit here at IMDb shows him as a stunt driver.

One of my biggest regrets is that I blew a chance to meet and talk with him. He was living in the Motion Picture Home and I phoned him and asked for a chance to come visit. He said Sure and when I then said "interview," he said no interview. But I could still come visit.

Stupidly, I felt I had blundered and was embarrassed so never went.

Dave Sharpe was a lot of fun to watch. He was so athletic and graceful, each movement was like poetry.

So "Ghost Town" was populated with just tons and tons of talent, and even the ubiquitous Ed Cassidy (268 credits!) had a bigger-than-usual part and he too showed he could handle bigger roles.

Other actors are generally unknown, but even the smallest roles were extremely well handled.

And one reason: They had a great script! Clever dialogue moved along the intricate story, and director Harry Fraser, who also wrote both the story and the screenplay, was very detail-oriented.

I saw "Ghost Town" in a mediocre print at YouTube, and loved it despite the print. I highly recommend "Ghost Town" with Harry Carey and Dave Sharpe, and think it is about as good a B western as you can find.

Rugged Harry Carey, as Cheyenne Harry Morgan, a man whose cinematic past includes many brushes with the law, is ranging south in this Astor films production, when he comes across an old friend named McCall, played by veteran Western performer Earl Dwire, and when McCall is murdered, Cheyenne Harry is arrested and must clear himself of the crime. An assortment of character actors appear in this well scripted and directed product, each process the work of able Harry Fraser, including a trio of villains: Lee Shumway, Roger Williams and Chuck Morrison, acrobatic stuntman David Sharpe as a young deputy and, as a thug's moll in this contemporary Western, Jane Novak who was Carey's leading lady in a number of silent films. There is much to admire in this low budget "B", including the oft naturalistic dialogue penned by Fraser and generally well delivered by the cast, creative and humoursome cinematography by Robert Cline, and the four-footed skills of wandering Harry's most valuable property, the black-maned white steed Sonny. Carey was featured in 26 silent Cheyenne Harry adventures under the direction of John Ford, and this undertaking is the second to last of the long-running series which had continued after the coming of sound, with the gravelly-voiced actor consistently contributing a solid performance as a black hatted frontiersman who simply can not refuse to assist those in need.

Earl Dwire's mine was played out years ago, and the town he and his partner built with it likewise. They've just struck a new, rich vein, and some promoters want in and won't take no for an answer. They shoot him, intending to rob him, but Harry Carey is on hand. Soon enough, he's also in jail on the testimony of the bad guys.

It's a nice B western for Carey, with Jane Novak in her first sizeable role since 1929. Carey's character is "Cheyenne Harry," the same name he used at Universal in 1917, trying out a new director named John Ford. He would use it in one more B Western, ACES WILD. After that it was better financed westerns for the like of RKO and starring character parts in A pictures.

The movie looks like it originally timed at least 10 minutes longer, but the print I looked at was 56 minutes, the same as the listed time. Arthur Brooks' editing shows signs that he was ordered to bring it down and could not do so smoothly. Still, Carey's charm comes through, as it always does.

A couple of old men with a rich silver mine and $10,000 in cash become the target for gangsters who want to take it all. Harry Carey, an old acquaintance of one of the men, witnesses an attempted murder and prevents the the theft of the money, only to be hauled off to jail in a case of mistaken identity.

A late entry in the Cheyenne Harry series, started out by a young John Ford at Universal and finished by poverty-row filmmakers, this is generally lackluster, but made palatable by the presence of Carey.

Still, it's not totally bad, though there's too many automobiles. It takes away from the western feel.

Harry Carey was so charismatic and delivered such great performances, that it makes just about anything he's in worth watching, despite the fact that by this time he was much older than the typical Saturday matinée star