His Brother's Ghost

After not watching westerns for two or three decades, in a fit of nostalgia I decided to watch them again. Internet Archives has quite a few of them and I selected this one – mostly because of Al St. John. Although Fuzzy having an identical twin brother is kinda a nice twist, the movie is all in all a rather pedestrian oater. However, the scene of Crabbe (Billy Carson) galloping on his horse with his arms tied was a corker. As has been pointed out previously, the business of Fuzzy peeking around the pole was unnecessary and unfunny. Although I liked Crabbe as Flash Gordon, I never did (even as a kid) warm up to him as a cowboy. My favorites were Buck Jones, Lash LaRue, Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers and Annie Oakley, all of who had a certain charisma, which, to me, Crabbe did not have. Still like Fuzzy though. At less than an hour, watching this movie is pleasant enough diversion.

I really like this fairly short little movie. There's always something interesting about old comic "haunted" Westerns (even more-so when it isn't a "real" haunting). Al St. John effortlessly steals the show from Buster Crabbe and the absurdity of supposed twins (living away from each other) having identical beards doesn't really spoil it either.

I also really like the titles and credits; the hand turning the pages (as in "Cat Ballou") of a big, interesting book, and that quick fumble of the title page. (I guess they could only do one take, heh, but it looks like they still practiced for a while.)

The plot basically involves Al St. John in two roles, playing both Andy Jones and his twin brother who comes in to take over after Andy is shot, who plays the vengeful ghost angle rather amusingly against Thorn and his men, who are killing the sharecroppers. Fully enjoyable, even though much of the spoken line continuity makes little sense. For example, the brother having to be told that he is to play Andy's ghost after he already scares off two of Thorn's men by merely walking into the room and saying "boo", and an odd line about convincing them that Andy is "still alive" (contrary to the ghost angle) and the idea of the somewhat bumbling Andy having more ability to organize than many men working together (which is actually why Andy called Billy in in the first place).

Some chair and wardrobe busting up during a fight in the final third. It wouldn't be Western without that.

The music is pretty good as well and fits just right, and there's a better than average (and highly amusing) feel-good ending.

Funny lines (what it SOUNDS like to me, anyway):

Doc (seeming to partially forget his lines): "We didn't expect - all these...mer-ders...Thorn."

Thorn: "Well what DID you expect? You hired me to get rid of the sharecroppers and I'm doing it."

Doc: "Aw, I goes it's all-what (all-right?)..."

There's one part near the end that almost made me fall out of my chair laughing; somehow a couple people "see" that it isn't really Andy Jones, even though it is the SAME actor, looking exactly the same. Heh.

"You better talk or that mug of yours is going to look like a spoiled custard pie..." Hahaha.

8/10

This is a Classic of all Classic early Westerns with great stars as Buster Crabbe, (Billy Carson), Al St. John,(Fuzzy Jones) and the bad bad guy who always wore a big black hat, Charles King,(Thorne) In this film Thorne is a bandit, con-man who wants to take over all the ranchers property and decides to either scare them off their land or just plain murder them all. Thorne has the doctor, sheriff and other officials in the Western town all wrapped around his little finger and is going to take Fuzzy Jones property, when Billy Carson comes to the aid of his old friend and decides to put an end to this murdering and stealing peoples ranches. There are no cowgirls in this picture at all and no singing cowboys. Charlie King made over two-hundred (200) Western Films and did a great job of standing up to Buster Crabbe. When television was appearing in most households in the 1950's all these Classic Western's could be seen on a daily basis until people got sick and tired of them. Enjoy

With more characterization, and more of the minor characters getting more dialogue, director Sam Newfield brings George Milton's script to very active life.

According to IMDb, despite the different names as writers, they all were actually George Milton. And he deserves the credit.

Al "Fuzzy" St. John out-does himself this time, yes, still being his acrobatically funny self, but being an introspective self, too.

Bad guy Charles King out-does himself, too, and his look of glee at some particularly dastardly deed shows just what a good actor he really was.

Buster Crabbe doesn't stretch himself, but he looks good and, of course, handles his action well.

Behind them are some of the best Western players Hollywood ever had, and PRC once again rises well above its reputation.

I highly recommend "His Brother's Ghost" and there's a good print at YouTube.

This film is one of a series starring Buster Crabbe as Billy Carson, a rancher who spends a good portion of his time attempting to better the lives of sharecroppers and others who run afoul of varying murderous plotters; in this instance, a friend of Carson is killed and replaced by his twin brother, causing consternation amidst the villains who are convinced that the twin is a vengeful ghost. Most of this short (54 min.) work consists of two small groups of extraordinarily confident horsemen who canter about, chasing and shooting at each other, in essentially non-stop fashion; one's attention becomes drawn to spotting the interchangeability of the good and bad guys......nothing else here warrants a viewer's concentration.