The Phantom Cowboy

Rather confusing tale about a cowboy and his double (who at first uses a cape to pull of robberies!) and how they get together with a brother and sister team to foil the bad guys in this town. The sister becomes a penny dancer, and his brother becomes sort of a shady character. I am not really 100% sure of what the heck happens, because this was all out confusing for some odd reason. Needless to say, they clean up the town of course for the required happy ending, which is all that matters Although this was one of the most confusing movies I've seen in a long while, the acting here is pretty good, and the 'twin brother' scenes done by the one actor are pretty convincing, so that just barely made it watchable.

During a ninety eight year life he acted in three hundred and sixty five films and also directed three films and edited two films. Thus it is impossible for me to assess his career. But I appreciate his hard working life . His contribution to Hollywood would be typical of the many unsung workers that make THE MOVIES. I enjoyed and found amusing, his acting in "The Phantom Cowboy". The film is certainly made with the very lowest of budgets. However please remember that " The Phamtom Cowboy " was made in 1935 and this was in the middle of The Great Depression and many USA cinemas were in dire conditions,often facing bankruptcy. There was a market for low cost films such as "Yhe Phantom Cowboy". I think even today many people enjoy such B films. W.R Hearst(" of Citizen Kane fame) certainly did so and had repeated showings of favorite B films in his private cinema.

Many people have felt that Jar-Jar Binks was one of the most awful and annoying sidekicks in movie history. While I definitely agree, memories of Jar-Jar were conjured up as I watched an old B-western--"The Phantom Cowboy". Why? Well, because Pete (Jimmy Aubrey) was so incredibly loud, over-acted and just plain irritating!! In a way, however, he is a blessing as his horrible acting makes the rest of the horrible acting a little less obvious.

As for the leading man, Ted Wells, he had a minor handicap that soon became apparent--he simply could not act. Again and again, he delivers his dialog like he's reading it off cue cards. There is practically no emotion behind it and his delivery is completely flat. As a result, he has the charisma of a Kleenex. To make things worse, he plays dual roles--so you get a double-dose of incompetent acting. Even for a super low-budget B, his and the rest of the acting is simply dreadful--and worse than an Ed Wood film! As far as the plot goes, I actually had a hard time paying attention to it because I was just fixated on the bad acting. However, the story is about some idiot (Ted Wells) riding around with a cape wrapped around his face and robbing stages. The way he looked was actually pretty funny--and reminiscent of the dentist who pretended he was Bela Lugosi in "Plan 9 From Outer Space" when Lugosi died part-way through the production! Later, he meets a cowboy (also Ted Wells) and his moronic friend (Aubrey) and they have some sort of dull adventure or whatever...

The bottom line is that I am apparently a person that will watch almost anything (with almost 10000 reviews to my credit) and love low-budget B-films. So, if I think it's a dreadful film than that should say something! Frankly, I can't think of anything positive to say about this full film make by rank amateurs. Well, other than it's great for the laughs it unintentionally elicits! For example, watching characters reading their lines poorly and the fake mustache at about 13 minutes into the film--they are pretty hilarious!

While I wouldn't quite put it in the Ed Wood category, this western is pretty much inept. Ted Wells may have been OK as a silent actor, but here he comes across as so wooden as to almost give the viewer splinters. Jimmy Aubrey as Ptomaine Pete is even worse, the most over the top performance by any cowboy sidekick! As for that, the movie has nothing going for it, the action is boring and fake. Repeated scenes of the "posse" passing the same billboard several times don't help either. However if you have 55 minutes of your life you want throw away (remember, you'll never get them back), then this may be OK enough to occupy those minutes.

This is the sort of grade Z cowboy movie that people think of when you mention B Westerns. Arising from the resources of producer-director Robert J. Horner (a man with one eye, no legs and less talent), the story seems to involve Ted Wells in his last starring role. He is wandering from rodeo to rodeo with his sidekick Jimmy Aubrey, who refers to himself as "Ptomaine Pete' in the most glowing terms and the third person. They occasionally encounter George Cheseborough, in what may be a dual role as Buck and the Phantom Bandit.

The tin-eared script script is blamed on Carl Krusada. Besides failures of dialogue and my severe disagreement with what they term "comic relief", there are continuity issues, obviously repeated shots, a dumb score and everyone sounds like they are reciting their lines after being fed them, six words at a time.

This was Horner's last movie as director -- there is no credited producer. His production company was Aywon. I suspect it disappeared when Ralston engineered his consolidation of the more ambitious Poverty Row producers into Republic. If so, I forgive him for trying to foist his wife, Vera Hruba, on the American public as a star.