Such a frustrating disappointment

Let's be realistic.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the stranger of the Billy Carson series of PRC B westerns, starring Buster Crabbe as Billy, and Al St. John as Fuzzy. Here, Billy, as a US marshal, is charged with finding and returning $50,000. stolen from the Piedmont bank. Unless this is returned pronto, the bank has the option of foreclosing on various ranches, where the rancher's savings was included in the stolen money. Toward this end, Billy made arrangements to allow the 4 members of the gang that stole the money to escape from prison, in hopes they would make a bee line to where the money was hidden. In fact, this is what they did. First, they got a forced ride in a 1940s car to the point where they had somehow arranged for 5 horses to be brought, the 5th for Tom, a non-member whom they forced to join them. Apparently, they hoped to make him the 5th gang member, but he preferred to return to the security of prison life. Hence, he was shot in the back as he rode away. He did manage to crawl to the cabin of his friend Fuzzy, which just happened to be near by, before he died. Billy soon arrived, and convinced Fuzzy to accompany him looking for the money. They somehow got on the right trail of the gang, which led them to the old played-out Wild Horse goldmine. When they arrived, they heard the gang discussing that the money wasn't where the boss, Daggert, remembered putting it. Was his memory faulty, or had someone stolen it? They speculated that they might be in the wrong tunnel. Then, a ghostly laugh was heard, which upset Fuzzy, and they were discovered, and tied up. After the gang left for another tunnel, a phantom cut Fuzzy's rope with a knife, so he could untie Billy. Billy followed the mine owner, and possible phantom, out of the mine , to his nearby house, where they talked about the stolen money. Meanwhile, Fuzzy was scared out of his wits by a giant bat-like screaming flying creature. He picked up an axe, ran around with it, finally plunging it into the wall of the mine. Low and behold, he finds currency, a lot of it, behind the wall! But, soon, Ed Garnet(whom Fuzzy had not met) showed up in back of him, with a gun. Fuzzy dropped the money and ran. Meanwhile, elsewhere in and around the mine, the gang members were getting testy because Daggart couldn't find the money. So, he shot 2 members, killing one immediately, while the other escaped out of the tunnel, encountered Daggart, and shot him before dying. Meanwhile, Fuzzy had captured and roped the last member of the gang. Now, Billy had to convince Garnet to give up the money, if he had it. Did Garnet find the money where Daggart hid it, and rehide it behind the wall, where Fuzzy accidentally found it?? At first, Ed refused, but Billy appealed to his sense of community, and he gave in. Now, Billy had to rush to town and give the money to the banker before his noon deadline. If this sounds interesting, see it at YouTube.

Although "Wild Horse Phantom" is not the worst entry in the well-named PRC (actually Producers Releasing Corp., but the initials could well stand for Poverty Row Cra.. Well, let's say Collections) Billy the Kid/Billy Carson series, it earns a pride of place here because it re-uses The Devil Bat from the studio's 1941 Bela Lugosi release with that title. Buster Crabbe and Fuzzy St John spend most of their footage in a spooky mine. Kermit Maynard is the vicious, if forgetful villain. (This movie was once available on an excellent Retromedia DVD, but I don't know if it is still in stock. But it was also available on the "Fugitive of the Plains" DVD! See below). Kermit Maynard turns up again in the slightly better "Fugitive of the Plains" (1943) in which the lovely Maxine Leslie manages to overcome sloppy editing, scads of stock footage, obvious doubles, an incoherent plot, tedious comic relief, inept direction (Sam Newfield) and (in the VCI "Buster Crabbe" DVD) image break-up plus missing footage. This DVD also features our Wild Horse Phantom - not Fuzzy Settles Down as shown on the DVD's cover!

Crabbe may get top billing, but the star is goofy St. John. I doubt any comic relief in Westerns gets more screen time than the toothless clown in this oddity. It's like they don't have enough 60-minutes of script, so his antics have to fill the bill. The plot's a standard one-- our hero has to get stolen money before the ruthless banker forecloses on area ranchers. What makes this oater different is that most of the action takes place in a darkened mine tunnel where the money's hidden. The pit's also inhabited by a big flying bat and crazy laughter. Too bad these weren't played up more, which would have really distinguished this bottom row production (PRC). As it stands, Crabbe's broad-shouldered, St. John's fitfully funny, and the 60-minutes mostly amounts to a silly oddity.

This is a great "B" film. It reminds me of one of the Abbott and Costello films where they encounter horror situations. Al (Fuzzy) St. John provides comic relief as Buster Crabbe plays a dashing Billy Carson complete with one-liners. Worth seeking out.