Phantom Ranger

Mint worker Pat Doyle (John St. Polis) is kidnapped by a gang of outlaws, and forced to make counterfeit bill blanks for a gang of thieves. Tim Hayes (Tim McCoy) is sent to track down where the bills are coming from. It all runs like an episode of "Dragnet", but its okay. Some terrible acting by Doyle's "wife" (Suzanne Kaaaren) when she goes storming into the Bureau's office and demands action. The usual oat-burner horse chases, as they go after the gang. Filmed at Corriganville... if you haven't read up on it or visited, it has a fun history, and now its a county park! The actors and director (Sam Newfield) had all started in silents, so they knew the business well enough. Newfield and his brother were the big cheeses at PRC Pictures for a time. The usual western. It's a very okay shortie, at 53 minutes. It's exactly what you think its going to be.

"Government Man Disappears" blares the huge headline of a New York City newspaper. The missing man is John St. Polis, an engraver from the mint. He's being held by counterfeiters who force him to make phony money. He's engraved the town he's being held in on the plates, so his daughter, Suzanne Kaaren heads on down and gets a job as an entertainer with a Mexican accent. Meanwhile, the FBI sends one of their agents who knows "The West", Tim McCoy. He masquerades as a bandit who holds up the bad guys, which endears him to them.

It's nowhere near as bad as that, but it is a pretty barebones B western, with lots of shooting, horse riding, and the occasional musical interlude. McCoy had gotten his start in the movies as liaison with the local Indians on THE COVERED WAGON. He wrangled this into a series of B westerns for MGM. His contract was dropped, so he went to Universal, and then to various Gower Gulch production companies. He gave up the movies to return to the Army during the Second World War.

Besides being an army officer, McCoy was an actual westerner, with a claim to having the fastest draw of any movie cowboy - an editor checked and found he could draw and fire in six frames, a quarter of a second. He could speak several Indian languages, could use Indian sign language, ran working ranches and disdained horses, saying "I've never been sentimental about my horse. The horse doesn't give a damn about you. If you want to know the truth, horses are dumb." He died in 1978, aged 86.

The "Phantom Ranger" is fairly short, as B-westerns go, and with a taut, compact little story about counterfeiters in the late 1930's, being one of those curious films that takes place in the "modern" era, albeit in an enclave that stayed stuck in the 1880's, with horses, guns, and no cars . It is definitely worth viewing for fans of the genre and especially for fans of Tim McCoy, foremost because we get to see a side of Tim that doesn't get showcased often, that of the playful, tipsy, gregarious, teasing, confident, and advances-offering ladies man. But the treat doesn't last long enough, unfortunately.

We also get to hear and see some fun, contemporary (for 1938) Latin dancing and music in the venerable border saloon. Additionally, the culminating scene occurs on terrain that is a little more extreme and rugged than normal, too. The pretty leading lady is Suzanne Kaaren, who had a long career in film and stage, going on through to "The Cotton Club" in 1984. In sum, this is a fun film, and as might be expected, Tim McCoy's enjoyably authoritative presence keeps this "Phantom Ranger" moving along nicely.

The expressions in the small part i saw in the bar room reminded me of silent pictures.

Tim McCoy is one of my favorites and I really enjoyed watching him show more personality than usual in this well-directed programmer.

Writers Stanley Roberts and Joseph O'Donnell, credited with the story, in the screenplay by O'Donnell created several speaking parts, and director Sam Newfield let the performers shine.

This is Monogram, so we know there were not millions of dollars spent, but every penny that was spent was used wisely. Except for the opening, with stock footage and, worse, a montage of "news" paper front pages.

After that, though, it was an interesting and even exciting movie, with some really good dialogue, from all the characters.

One of them was played by an actress heretofore unknown to me, Suzanne Kaaren, although it's spelled "Karen" in the opening credits. Her bio here at IMDb shows her to be a good-natured, good-humored lady who mostly enjoyed her career. That's a nice change from so much whining we too often see. In Ms. Kaaren's case, our complaint is that she didn't do even more, and that in what she did she should have been given more credit.

In truth, the byplay between and among all the characters probably out-weighs the action, which is fairly routine, but the photography of that action is superb, with, I guess, the credit to both director Newfield and cinematographer Jack Greenhalgh.

"Phantom Ranger" is another pointless title, but I recommend this film for several reasons: Tim McCoy, good dialogue, gorgeous scenery. I think the version I just watched via Hoopla, a service of some public libraries (which I also highly recommend), has had some music added. It didn't help, but didn't really hurt. Do try to see "Phantom Ranger."