Ghost Patrol (1936)

Cast:

Tim McCoy is Tim Caverly
Claudia Dell is Natalie Brent
Walter Miller is Ted Dawson
Wheeler Oakman is Kincaid

What the box says:

A cowboy turned G-Man looks into a series of mysterious plane crashes in this low-budget but fairly engrossing B-Western starring Tim McCoy. Masquerading as an outlaw, Tim Caverly manages to infiltrate a gang of mail thieves holed up in a ghost town. As Tim discovers, the gang leaders, Dawson (Walter Miller) and Kincaid (Wheeler Oakman), have kidnapped Professor Brent (Lloyd Ingraham), whose electrical ray gun is used to shoot down the planes. Also arriving at the hideout is Natalie (Claudia Dell), the professor's pretty daughter, who warns her father that women and children were among the victims of the latest crash. Although Dawson is suspecting Tim to be a G-Man, the villain orders Brent to shoot down an incoming government plane. There is an exchange of gunfire between Dawson and Tim, and Brent is shot attempting to shut off the ray gun. The professor survives, however, and the villains are apprehended.

Plot:

Cowboys are on the trail.

Pilot, Tim, realizes his plane is about to crash and only hope to be able to get who is behind it. Elsewhere, machine sparking electricity starts to stall the plane. Ariel acrobatics ensue.

Tim radios and then manages to bail out and parachute to safety.

Next man who mocks my hat will be residing on Boot Hill.

The cowboys examine the wreckage and steal the mailbags? Those devious criminal masterminds.

Natalie Brent, the distraught daughter of missing famous scientist Dr. Brent, examines numerous newspaper clippings and books a trip to Shilo where a plane crashed.

Elb gets out a radio to contact Agent X 702.

The cowboys find the bonds aren’t in the plane wreckage.

Some guy shoots Elb. He leaves unaware that Elb wasn’t fatally wounded.

Natalie is on the road after being dropped off by the bus. She gets picked up by Tim who’s driving a wagon to Shilo with his partner, Henry, hiding in back. Eventually, she asks to be let out after some charming banner.

In Shilo, the cowboys don’t cotton to Tim Toomey. However, he gets the drop on them. Later he discovers that Natalie is looking for her father.

Tim wants in on the action. The cowboys take him to the hideout. Meeting with Dawson, the boss, Tim convinces him that a partnership could improve security and improve taking down planes. Dawson doesn’t trust him.

Tim searches for Dr. Brent while Henry goes back to call for reinforcements. Reaching town, Henry radios for the cavalry to arrive.

In the abandoned mines, Tim sees Dr. Brent in a lab. Let the science ensue. Tim reveals he is actually a Department of Justice agent investigating the plane crashes.

Natalie is wandering around the countryside when a goon catches her. She gets to meet the charming Dawson. One of the goons reveals that Tim Toomey was caught last week. So whoever is here must be an imposter.

Dr. Brent has been trying to keep the crooks from learning how to use his device. Dawson drags Natalie to the lab.

The plane filled with G-Men is approaching.

Dawson shows Tim the headline. Tim battles one of the goons.

Dawson orders Brent to start up the ray again.

Wobbly plane action ensues with that stalling engine noise…

Tim heads back to the lab. Let the gunfight ensue. A goon shots Dr. Brent.

The plane manages to land with the G-Men to the rescue. Natalie and Tim tend to Brent’s shoulder wound.

What I say:

Take the standard mad scientist lab and throw it in with the generic western town, mix together with a derivative cop on an investigation plot with a horse opera, you get Ghost Patrol. To be fair, mixing Westerns with other genres typically never works too well. Billy the Kid Versus Dracula or Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter aren't real standouts except save in the "completely deranged fusion category." The "who can believe having Dracula or Frankenstein's monster battling famous Western outlaws?" isn't a very big moneymaking genre.

I've discussed what in b-movies gets my goat. The day for night shots, the characters I have to come up with witty nicknames for the entire movie only to learn at the very end it was Billy. However, that name was used as often and as many times of hearing Cthulu at the office water cooler. To me the worst crime of a movie is to be boring. Having an entire cast that was less entertaining than watching your family fight at Thanksgiving dinner, should have that cast thrown into a vat of man-eating wombatsWhich actually the most annoying thing in the movie was when the planes start to stall out. The engines would run then stop. Unfortunately, it spounded like my computer was freezing up on me. This was one of the most annoying noises. We're beyond the valley of Fran Drescher's singing...

Low budget movies are known for not being easy to follow. While this may not be as logical inefficient as say Robo Vampire, that is like saying vegan slighty loves vegetables. If my description of Elb's shooting is a bit lacking, the movie didn't really make it clear who he was or why he was shot. When a movie doesn't explain who the character is, audience sympathy for him has just jumped the window onto the back of a shark.

Once again we are shown the dangers of science. Yes, the wages of science ensues, though Dr Brent isn't killed because he was forced into the scheme and worried about others using it nefariously, he only gets a flesh wound rather than being fatallly shot like many scientists because they were more concerned with their work than other people.

The stranger who seems awfully fast with a gun who wants to join the gang always is revealed to be a deputy or a marshal. The mysterious stranger around a group of evil guys must be the hero especially after he man-handles their top-gun with his rugged 2 fists or demonstrates he's a bit quicker on the draw than McGraw, yes Quick Draw McGraw.... Granted, when the stranger has a comedic sidekick and acts suspicious, definite hero...

If you're evil and has a device that freezes up airplane engines, you use it to rob mail planes. Why do I get the feeling that made a lot more sense back in the 1940s? Criminal and mad scientists never can see the best way to use super technology for the best ways. The military would trip over any device that uses sound waves to crash planes that actually works.

By the way, there are no patrols of ghosts in this movie. That fact makes me feel so cheated. A squad of ghosts wouldn't have been as cool as "Ghost Riders in the Sky." However, at least Ghost Riders Patrol in the Sky has a more interesting ring to it. An army of flaming skeletons riding horse chasing malefactors would have been sweet. This idea didn't come from the grizzled Sam Elliott in Ghost Rider.

Point to Ponder:
The Clark Gable theory of hitchhicking is stolen from It Happened One Night for this movie.

Quotable Dialogue
"Sound like a 6 gun."
"It's just too bad copper."
Morals of the Story
Cowboys are very punctual about plane landings.
Electromagnetic pulses affect non'electromagnetic devices.
Parachutes are hard to see in a clear blue sky.
Air mail theft is dastardly.
Ghost towns aren't deserted.
Radios have hand cranks.