User Reviews

Copyright 19 January 1933 by Paramount Productions, Inc. No New York opening. U.S. release: 20 January 1933. 6 reels. 59 minutes.

Alternative title: The FIGHTING PHANTOM.

Favorite Films' re-issue title was BADMEN OF NEVADA (despite the fact that there are no traditional badmen in the picture and that it's set in Arizona, not Nevada).

NOTES: A re-make of Paramount's 1927 movie, directed by John Waters and photographed by Charles Schoenbaum from a screenplay by Fred Myton and Paul Gangelin. The stars were Jack Holt as Wade, Betty Jewell (Dorothy), Charles Sellon (Harkness), and David Torrence (Mark King). The plot closely resembles this version and, judging by the stock shots incorporated into the talkie, it must have been a very spectacular production indeed! Re-made by Paramount in 1938, again as The Mysterious Rider (alternative title: Mark of the Avenger) starring Douglass Dumbrille - of all people! - as the hero and Sidney Toler as his comic sidekick. The PRC 1942 western of the same title is not related to Zane Grey at all but is an entry in the "Billy the Kid" series starring Buster Crabbe and Al St John.

COMMENT: Warren Hymer is not one of my favorite actors. In fact, I always sigh in despair when I see his name on the credits. So it is with some relief that I can tell you that he's actually almost tolerable in The Mysterious Rider. The accolade for this movie's hammiest actor is stolen from Hymer by young Sherwood Bailey. Cora Sue Collins runs Master Bailey a distant second, whilst our Warren makes a good effort for third. Alas, Kent Taylor is not much chop as the hero either, despite his wouldn't-fool-a-prairie-dog Spanish accent.

On the other hand, Miss Andre (often beautifully photographed in close-up by Archie Stout) makes both a believably delightful and skillfully charming heroine; whilst the villains are invigoratingly portrayed by blustering Berton Churchill, insidious Irving Pichel and calculatingly crooked Clarence Wilson.

Fans of Gail Patrick are warned that her role runs for a piffling amount of screen time - about a tenth that allotted Miss Collins!

I've not come across director Fred Allen before. Looking him up, I see that he's a film editor who seems to have specialized in westerns. His films include The Lone Rider (1922) with Denver Dixon, The Canyon of Adventure (1928) and a whole heap of other films with Ken Maynard. Certainly, Allen has handled this entry competently enough and has definitely inserted the silent material with such smooth and deft scissoring that only the darkness of the original images gives the game away!

"The Fighting Phantom" qualifies as a lively, low-budget, modern day, black & white western set in the 1920s when Boulder Dam was undergoing construction. Kent Taylor plays the eponymous protagonist. Nothing is a picnic for Taylor as he tangles with unsavory adversaries. Nashville native Lona Andre is a sexy little dish of an actress who wins his heart. Future "Maltese Falcon" starlet Gail Patrick plays Wade's relative. At the heart of this oater is a major land swindle. The intrepid hero in director Fred Allen's "Fighting Phantom" endures considerable hardship at times, especially after the authorities lock him up in the calaboose. Wade Benton manages to let himself in and out of jail with a little help from an adolescent deputy named Matt Arnold, Jr., so he can perform his courageous deeds. Of course, everything works out in the end, but Wade Benton (Kent Taylor) finds himself up to his ears in villains and varmints in the form of swindling lawyers and greedy land barons. Later, Wade's interrogation methods seem rather extreme. He drags a scheming lawyer across the desert. When the scoundrel still refuses to admit his crime, Wade hauls him through cactus. Taylor proves quite a hand with a lariat himself when breaks out and back into jail. Anybody who has seen the Marlon Brando western "One-Eyed Jacks" will attest to the relative ease with which Taylor wields his rope to get him out of his jail cell.

In Washington, D.C., a Congressman stands before a crowd and announces that the construction of Boulder Dam will create the largest artificial reservoir in the world. This hundred-mile lake will prove worthless to his constituents unless an aqueduct is erected to carry the water from the dam to those countless thirsty farmers and ranchers. The water will transform the lives of countless residents who have had to sink wells in an otherwise parched terrain. The politician rhapsodizes about the plethora of livestock and crops that the water will yield. "I hereby solemnly pledge myself," the politician vows, "to work unceasingly for the aqueduct which will transform a million worthless acres into a modern Garden of Eden." When crooked attorney Cliff Harkness (perennial villain Irving Pichel of "Gambling Ship") tries to sell the old Gonzalez Spanish land grant to land baron Mark King (Berton Churchill of "Stagecoach) for $150-thousand, King refuses to buy. Meantime, in town, Wade encounters Dorothy (Nashville native Lona Andre of "Slaves in Bondage") quite by accident. Sheriff is demonstrating his expertise with a rope to his girlfriend Jo-Jo Foster (Cora Sue Collins). Sheriff's lariat loops over a freight wagon and encircles Dorothy's ankle. Sheriff reels King's secretary literally into the street. Dorothy reprimands Wade for his impertinence despite his protests of innocence. Moments later Sheriff appears and confesses his crime. No sooner has this happened than Wade's goofy sidekick 'Jitney' Smith (Warren Hymer of "Meet John Doe") cruise up in his jalopy and hit Dorothy, propelling her into Wade's arms. Smith has come to fetch Wade. Later, Dorothy inquires about Wade's marital status, and Sheriff assure her that Wade is single.

Harkness propositions the small ranchers and farmers, and proposes that they buy what he has to sell for $50-thousand. Wade intervenes and huddles with his neighbors. The judge advises Wade to compromise with Harkness because the attorney could stir up an awful lot of trouble. The small ranchers and farmers cannot come up with $50-thousand so Wade seizes Harkness by the lapels. Using his strong-arm techniques, Wade persuades Harkness to lower his price to $20-thousand. Harkness insists payment in cash in 48 hours. Wade convinces his neighbors to ante up the loot, and he takes the whole amount along with his own land deed to the crooked lawyer. Harkness scrawls a receipt for Wade. No sooner has Wade left than King, the cattle baron walks in and buys the land deed for over a $100-thousand. The scheming Harkness slips over to Hezekiah Gentry's barber shop and picks Wade's pocket and sticks the receipt into a stove. The eagle-eyed barber notices what Harkness is doing. The barber informs Harkness that he uses his stove for his corn liquor. He hides the incriminating information into one of his barber cups. Gentry decides to join Harkness' business. Not long after, when Wade can neither find the receipt nor the squatters' money, he brandishes his guns and tries to flee. No sooner has he stepped out of the saloon than he backs into a lawman. The imaginative thing about "The Fighting Phantom" is how our hero gets out of one tough scrape and into another predicament. He thwarts the villains repeatedly adopting an ersatz Spanish accent to make his demands. Once Wade has been imprisoned, he starts his campaign against the villains as the anonymous phantom. Meantime, Gentry has carved a slice of Harkness' pie with his own greedy demands. Eventually, Harkness kills Gentry while he is searching his store. Dying in Wade's arms, Gentry tells him that Harkness double-crossed him. Our hero has to find the receipt now to exonerate himself.

"The Fighting Phantom" is a modest, entertaining B-movie western. Allen's movie boasts few gunfights but lots of hard horsemanship.