Ghost Patrol

I've seen quite a few B-series westerns in recent months--and several starring Tim McCoy. Well, up until this film I liked the McCoy films and assumed his films were all pretty good. Not so fast, however,...after seeing "Ghost Patrol" I realized he COULD make a bad film...a very bad film.

In his book "The 50 Worst Movies of All Time and How They Got to Be That Way", Harry Medved picks an obscure Gene Autry film as the worst B-series western. Well, I saw this film ("Twilight on the Rio Grande") and thing "Ghost Patrol" is a lot worse--and for many of the same reasons why Medved disliked the Autry film. Both were the oddest sort of westerns--ones set in modern times and featuring modern problems. In "Ghost Patrol", the cowboy McCoy investigates a ray gun that is able to knock down airplanes!! And, naturally, the government sends in a single dandy cowboy (in his prettiest cowboy clothes)---not an army of Secret Service men or soldiers!!! Who thought any of this made sense?! While there is more to the story than this, seeing airplanes, telephones, cars and death rays just make the story seem like a jumbled mess.

I think if the film had been rewritten without all the cowboy references and having McCoy wearing normal clothes when he investigated the plane crashes, the film might have been worth seeing. Or, conversely, if they'd just made a western, it might have been a decent film. But this amalgam was just a silly mess....and might just make your brain hurt! Bad acting and a limp plot didn't help any!

Ghost Patrol (1936)

** (out of 4)

Airplanes begin falling from the sky so a Depertment of Justice worker (Tim McCoy) begins to investigate. Before long he uncovers a group of people using a death ray machine to bring the planes down.

GHOST PATROL often gets credited for being in the Western genre that mixes in horror elements. There aren't any ghosts on display and the film really isn't horror but it does fall into the science fiction field as the story itself is rather ambitious or at least a lot more interesting than you typical "C" Western from this era.

The film actually borrows heavily from the previous year's film AIR HAWKS from Columbia, which was about a mad scientist (Edward Van Sloan) using a ray to bring down planes. The setting here is obviously that of a Western but the story makes for a quick hour and there's no doubt that the story is interesting enough to keep you entertained.

McCoy certainly has no problem playing the hero and makes it look quite easy.

The previous year saw the "Phantom Empire" serial. Though it is all but forgotten now, it had a profound effect on movies. It mixed cowboys, radium, planes, scientists. It also had an underground civilization. In short order, studios produced a slew of cowboy science fiction movies, many with titles that copied "phantom" in some way. Most omitted the underground part.

This is one of them, and not particularly bad by the standards of the time. It ends with our cowboy hero and the presumably beautiful and plucky daughter of the just-saved scientist. She doesn't know who he is and says "can you give me your name," which he turns into a proposal.

I watched it only to see the effect of "Phantom." Otherwise, it isn't much of interest.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

I actually like Westerns set in contemporary times and find the added science fiction elements kinda interesting. While I consider Tim McCoy to be a somewhat lackluster personality, this outing was good enough that I watched it to the end. When movies include newspaper shots, I always quickly scan adjoining articles just for the fun of it. I was thus intrigued when the kidnapped scientist Professor Brant's daughter compares two newspaper articles, the articles were on screen for so long, that it was possible to scan other article headlines, one of which had the title "100,000 Chinese live in trees after flood." Just out of curiosity, I did a quick search and learned that there was indeed a major flood of the Yangtze River in 1935. There were a number of major floods in China in the early 30s so it's not unlikely that sadly someone was having a bit of fun with the "living in trees" business. The best thing about watching this movie was then being able to understand how funny the review of the movie by Spuzzlightyear was – I shall long remember "Will McCoy ever aim his gun"?

Thanks to RETRO TV for bringing this camp sci fi western back. A favorite in the early days of tv, where stations bought blocks of B films and flooded the airwaves. No cable back then. Put up an antenna on your roof and this is what ya got!

For an indie western, there's a nostalgic charm to it, starring famous cowboy Colonel Tim McCoy. Had to be a big name to draw audiences in at the time, and no doubt the film made some money. Tim versus no-account Walter Miller (whose career began in silent films), forcing a scientist (Lloyd Ingraham) to turn his revolutionary ray beam on airplanes transporting cash. They crash and Miller rides off into the sunset with the loot.

Key-western Question; One head scratcher. What are the chances a plane would crash and not burst into flames, thus destroying the money? Poetic license vigorously applied, which again only adds to the camp element. Directed by Sam Newfield, who cranked out tons of films like this, later head of PRC Pictures, famous (or infamous) factory of low, low budget productions.

Pretty Claudia Dell, originally a Broadway showgirl, plays the damsel in distress, often in B films, though a very good actress. Ingraham, like Miller, was another veteran of silent films, who Newfield gave a job to, obviously for experience and not having to pay large salaries. Most of the money went to McCoy.

Witten by the original guru of serials and adventures, Wyndham Gittens (whose name was more famous than him), soon to write FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS. Filmed at the sprawling Brandeis Ranch (owned by the department store heir), hotspot for westerns during the 30s and 40s, based in Chatsworth, CA. Brandeis put so much money into the property, it even boasted a tennis court.

Best dvd by Alpha Video. Released 2004 with a cool sci fi lab cover.