dougdoepke
Lame oater even by matinee standards. There's little action, no suspense, and hokey scenes building up 10-year old Cody Jr. In fact, it's really the aggressive youngster who thwarts the baddies, while Dad (Cody Sr.) amiably gives up the spotlight. Then too, judging from all the rope tying and twirling, one might think somebody had a big interest in hemp rather than in westerns. There is some hard riding, and a humorous turn from old goat Buster. Also, the spooky dress-up scenes are pretty well done thanks mainly to the costuming and lighting. Nonetheless, events are limply directed with scenes following one another in no particular order. All in all, the hour looks like an effort at literally putting together a kids' western that failed.
Michael_Elliott
The Vanishing Riders (1935) * 1/2 (out of 4)Sheriff Bill Jones (Bill Cody) has to shoot a man in the line of duty and afterwards noticing that the man's son Tim (Bill Cody, Jr.) is going to be an orphan. The Sheriff agrees to take the boy as his own and soon the two of them are investigating an old haunted mine where bad guy Wolf Larson (Wally Wales) is working.THE VANISHING RIDERS is a pretty bad "C" Western from the days where these type of films were probably being released weekly. This one here manages to have a few interesting moments throughout but there are just way too many bad ones to keep this thing from being better known. As you can tell, this was mainly a film where Cody and his son could share the screen but sadly this here is one of the weakest aspects. The sugar-coated cute scenes are just annoying and come across more laughable than anything else.The actual performances aren't anything too special either with both Cody's coming across rather bland. Wales doesn't make for much of a bad guy either but I will say Bud Buster gets a few funny lines as the sidekick. The one thing that does somewhat work are the horror elements including the various talks about the mine being haunted as well as the ending where we get a lot of characters dresses up as skeletons. Still, THE VANISHING RIDERS doesn't have enough going for it to make it worth viewing.
FightingWesterner
After killing an outlaw, Bill Cody quits his job as a sheriff and vows to raise the outlaw's orphaned son. Riding off to start a new life, they soon find themselves in a creepy ghost town where Cody accepts a job working for a lady rancher alongside dubious characters that plan on rustling the cattle as well as riding off with the attractive rancher!The Vanishing Riders is kind of creaky and a bit short on action. However, it has a spirited main villain and a nifty final fifteen-minutes where Cody and son dress up like skeletal riders atop phantom horses, frightening the superstitious rustlers into submission.Things are never really boring. However, one wishes that the first half would have been more interesting.
John W Chance
When Budd Buster (veteran of over 300 TV and movie westerns) says that the villain, Wolf Larsen, is "raising heck!" you can tell this one looks like it was made for children. If not, it must have been put together to follow P.T. Barnum's words of wisdom, "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American Public." (Or was it Vince McMahon who said that?) It's in the long line of ghost town / ghost cave / ghost rider cheapies so common in B westerns of the thirties and forties. But even that dignifies the movie too much. Nothing worthwhile here, except to see that the real star of the film, Bill Cody, Jr. (who must have been about 10 years old) can out act his father, Bill Cody, Sr., who is best known for starring in "the worst B movie western ever made." (Let's see if you can fnd it.)The director, Robert Hill, is best known for directing 'Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars' (1938), felt by many to be the weakest of the three 'Flash Gordon' serials (though it features strong work by Charles Middleton as Ming the Merciless). In this one we see Hal Taliaferro (Wally Wales) featured prominently as the evil gang leader, but otherwise it's a double F: File and Forget. I generously give it a 2.
AD
