qatmom The lower end westerns are not known for cerebral plot and character development. This one scrapes the bottom with a hero hardly anybody recognizes because he's wearing a mask, a black hat, and a black cape. His voice (same flat drone--is he reading his lines?) never changes, his horse never changes, and the tack his horse wears never changes.Horse people NOTICE individual horses. I notice individual horses in these movies being used in ways that defy continuity. I also notice their bridles, especially the ornate ones. Surely in the setting of the movies such things would be noticed as well? While this is annoying on one level, on another it is so bad that it is entertaining. Obviously, this was produced for an audience that was none too picky, but even so, the target is set absurdly low. I liked the dismount/unsaddling maneuver, with Tarzan leaping into his own paddock.Ya gotta see it to believe it.

classicsoncall I love these old Westerns, but I have to call 'em as I see 'em. This one requires a major suspension of disbelief with the character of the Phantom Rancher, a pretty good gimmick except that he and Ken Mitchell (Ken Maynard) rode the same horse and no one could figure that out. Maybe that's why by the time Columbia Pictures put Charles Starrett to work as The Durango Kid, they had it all worked out that Durango would switch off between a white one and a black one.But whoa, wait a minute! Did they really use a trip wire to make old Tarzan go down the way he did in that crazy spill he took early in the picture? Like many cowboy movie stars of the era like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, Maynard owned the horse he rode in his pictures, so I can't imagine he would allow that just to make an exciting scene. Maybe I'm wrong about the trip wire, but watch the scene closely and both horse and rider take a mean tumble. Later on Maynard (or a stunt rider) do another gimmick where he drops off Tarzan saddle and all making a getaway from the bad guys. That one wasn't as dangerous but still takes some kind of effort to pull off.Story wise, what you have is the hero making the scene as a result of his uncle's will that puts him in charge of the Mitchell ranch. Only thing is, the uncle was hated in these here parts because he held the mortgages on the other ranchers and began foreclosing on them. He was in cahoots with the film's main villain Collins (Ted Adams), but was murdered on orders from Collins because he wasn't playing ball the way he should have been. Nephew Ken's plan is to smoke out the bad guys using the Phantom Rancher gimmick, dropping money off with the neighbor victims so they can buy back their mortgages from Mitchell. Like the man said, that roll of money was getting just about worn out.You can say what you want about aging cowboy star Maynard, well past his heyday as a top flight draw for this flick. The real show was put on here by Tarzan, who somersaults, leaps fences, rolls in the mud and limps on command to fool the baddies. If he had a better agent, he'd be as well known as Trigger and Champion.

FightingWesterner When Ken Maynard's uncle is murdered, he finds out that the old man was apparently a ruthless land baron and moneylender, who cheated and/or destroyed the other landowners in the area. Ken tries to make amends by pretending to go along with the gang that held sway over his uncle and by highlighting as the Phantom Rancher in order to help the put-upon farmers and thwart the bad guys.As far as Saturday matinée westerns go, Phantom Rancher is okay entertainment, but not really very action packed in it's first half. When Ken puts on the mask though, things pick up and the climax is pretty good.At this point in his career, Maynard was noticeably older and a bit heavier. However, he still had presence enough to pull off a decent performance, though he may have benefited from wearing a duster over his tight-fitted shirt.

kidboots Ken Maynard was heading towards the end of his career when he made this film in 1939 - come to think of it "Tarzan" was getting long in the tooth as well (he died in 1940). Seeing this is almost Maynard's last film and age and weight issues were catching up with him, I think it is wrong (like one of the reviews) to judge his popularity on his last few films. He had been a big cowboy star since the mid 1920s.Ken Mitchell rides into a hostile town. He has been sent a will from his uncle, begging him to come and help at the ranch and in the event of his death to take over. By the time Ken gets to town his uncle has been killed. His uncle, Jim Mitchell, was the most hated man in town, squeezing out the small ranchers and foreclosing on mortgages. Ken vows to help the ranchers and to try to fix things. He swears he will never be like his uncle. However, to find out if Collins is at the bottom of things, Ken decides to pretend to go in with Collins' mob - sabotaging the heroine's water supply, foreclosing on poor farmers with starving children. He then becomes the "phantom rancher" - anonymously giving money to the ranchers so they can pay their mortgages.Harry Harvey, who has almost 400 film credits in his resume, plays Gopher.Dave O'Brien (from "Reefer Madness" (1936) and the hapless guy from Pete Smith Specialities) plays the chief henchman, Luke.Dorothy Short (star of the cult exploitation films "Reefer Madness" and "Marihuana: Assassin of Youth" (1937) - I wonder if she smoked!!) plays the heroine Ann. Surprise, surprise - she was married to Dave O'Brien for quite a few years!!!I thought that it was an okay western.