His Brother's Ghost (1945) starring Buster Crabbe, Al St. John, Charles King, Karl Hackett, Arch Hall Sr. directed by Sam Newfield Movie Review

His Brother's Ghost (1945)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Al St. John in His Brother's Ghost (1945)

The Fuzzy Frightning

There is trouble going on as Thorne (Charles King) and his men are forcing ranchers to give up their land and running them out of the valley. When they come across the Jones ranch owned by Andy Jones (Al St. John) they kill him. What they don't know is that Andy is not only friends with Billy Carson (Buster Crabbe) but also that Andy has a twin brother Jonathan (Al St. John) and so Billy has Jonathan pretend to be Andy's ghost as they set about getting Thorne and his men.

It's not often that I say this about one of these quota quickie westerns but "His Brother's Ghost" is actually frustrating. Here we have a western with an entertaining idea of a dead rancher having a twin who masquerades as his dead brother to spook those who killed him. And it is not only a western but one which sees Al St. John playing the twins which means it should be full of laughs and slapstick. Unfortunately the end result is just a quota quickie which ignores the clever idea in favour for some old western cliches. It means that the end result is just an ordinary western rather than one which really makes you laugh with Al St. John under used.

Aside from the amusing idea there is not a great deal else to say although the numerous shots of people horse riding are good especially a scene involving one character riding at speed with his arms bound to his sides. Plus there is the low budget opening credits which sees someone flipping the pages of a book to show the credits, a nice idea but one which is a bit clumsy looking.

What this all boils down to is that "His Brother's Ghost" is in truth a decent quota quickie western from the 1940s but it is one which kind of frustrates as it misses an opportunity to have some real fun with the set up.


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