Watch His Brother's Ghost For Free

the audience applauded

Simply Perfect

Fresh and Exciting

As Good As It Gets

During the 1930s-1950s, Hollywood made 147283401324 B-westerns--such as those with Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. However, there were many, many more B series westerns as well with the likes of Hopalong Cassidy, Lash LaRue, the Cisco Kid and many, many others.This film stars Larry "Buster" Crabbe--ex-Olympic swimming champion and low-rent actor who played Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon in serials. While few would know it today, he actually made quite a few low-budget westerns and west definitely NOT among the better movie cowboys--though he was tall and had nice clean clothes. Now considering that "His Brother's Ghost" was made by one of the crappiest of the 'Poverty Row' studios, it's actually surprisingly good--which, really, isn't saying much! After all, most of these series films really didn't have great plots nor were the actors that great either. They were simply churned out by the dozen and undiscerning audiences loved 'em.In this film, despite Crabbe getting top billing, the star seems to be Al St. John. If you don't know, St. John was one of Fatty Arbuckle's relatives and played his foil in many silent comedies. In the 1930s and 40s, St. John had re-invented himself as a cowboy sidekick and was kept very busy in this capacity.The film starts with the usual rich baddies trying to run out all the ranchers. One of the most recalcitrant of the ranchers is play by St. John and the other ranchers look to him to lead a fight against the forces of evil. But, when he is killed, the cause for niceness is given a severe blow. Crabbe, though, has an idea--to get St. John's identical twin(!) to pretend to be him! This is very contrived but also a bit funny--injecting a tiny bit of life into this otherwise routine film. While you might balk at my giving it a 3, most of these films deserved 3s as they lacked imagination and depth and were meant mostly for little kids.

You're never sure what you're getting into with these Western ghost stories, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. This one has some of the elements you would expect, with Fuzzy St. John portraying a pair of brothers, one of whom is shot and killed, then replaced by his sibling who comes to the aid of hero Bill Carson (Buster Crabbe). The central plot has bad guy Thorne (Charlie King) night raiding local sharecroppers in order to take over their property. Pretty standard for these horse operas, and it's amazing how many times you found Charlie King in the exact same role as the chief heavy.Since all of these B Westerns were made to appeal to the matinée youngster, it's no surprise the film makers would try to get some mileage out of the ghost angle every now and then. Fuzzy chimes in with some fade-ins and fade-outs at the cabin window of the bad guys, and even gets to do a white sheet gimmick. Fuzzy probably ad-libbed a lot of his routine, and it's not surprising to see Crabbe cracking up on screen from time to time over his antics.What I don't get is how the film makers came up with some of their credibility defying stuff, like digging up the grave of Andy Jones to see if he was still in there, and being satisfied, filling it back in again. You think anyone would really do that? I don't know, maybe; but it just seems creepy to me.And how about that scene near the end when Thorne shoots Bentley (Arch Hall Sr.) through a closed window without shattering it? I mean, Crabbe and Fuzzy were standing right there, couldn't they have figured out that something was wrong with that scenario? This kind of stuff happens all the time in these era pictures and is one of the reasons I get such a kick out of watching them, more so than the actual story as the case may be.There's one other goofy thing to keep an eye out for - check out the scene when Fuzzy is shooting at the bad guys from behind a fence post. It's a cartoon moment in which his entire body is invisible until he steps out from behind the post. It's a head scratcher I've never seen before in a Forties Western flick, but now I won't be surprised if I ever see it again.I'm still on the lookout for a Western themed ghost story that flat out goes for the comic element in a big way instead of bits thrown in every now and then as they're done here. Something on the order of the Bowery Boys in "Ghosts on the Loose" or "Spooks Run Wild". For now though, if you like this kind of stuff, check out Fuzzy in another haunted Western flick, 1947's "Ghost Town Renegades". He teams up in that one with Lash LaRue.

This is a Classic of all Classic early Westerns with great stars as Buster Crabbe, (Billy Carson), Al St. John,(Fuzzy Jones) and the bad bad guy who always wore a big black hat, Charles King,(Thorne) In this film Thorne is a bandit, con-man who wants to take over all the ranchers property and decides to either scare them off their land or just plain murder them all. Thorne has the doctor, sheriff and other officials in the Western town all wrapped around his little finger and is going to take Fuzzy Jones property, when Billy Carson comes to the aid of his old friend and decides to put an end to this murdering and stealing peoples ranches. There are no cowgirls in this picture at all and no singing cowboys. Charlie King made over two-hundred (200) Western Films and did a great job of standing up to Buster Crabbe. When television was appearing in most households in the 1950's all these Classic Western's could be seen on a daily basis until people got sick and tired of them. Enjoy

I really like this fairly short little movie. There's always something interesting about old comic "haunted" Westerns (even more-so when it isn't a "real" haunting). Al St. John effortlessly steals the show from Buster Crabbe and the absurdity of supposed twins (living away from each other) having identical beards doesn't really spoil it either.I also really like the titles and credits; the hand turning the pages (as in "Cat Ballou") of a big, interesting book, and that quick fumble of the title page. (I guess they could only do one take, heh, but it looks like they still practiced for a while.)The plot basically involves Al St. John in two roles, playing both Andy Jones and his twin brother who comes in to take over after Andy is shot, who plays the vengeful ghost angle rather amusingly against Thorn and his men, who are killing the sharecroppers. Fully enjoyable, even though much of the spoken line continuity makes little sense. For example, the brother having to be told that he is to play Andy's ghost after he already scares off two of Thorn's men by merely walking into the room and saying "boo", and an odd line about convincing them that Andy is "still alive" (contrary to the ghost angle) and the idea of the somewhat bumbling Andy having more ability to organize than many men working together (which is actually why Andy called Billy in in the first place).Some chair and wardrobe busting up during a fight in the final third. It wouldn't be Western without that.The music is pretty good as well and fits just right, and there's a better than average (and highly amusing) feel-good ending.Funny lines (what it SOUNDS like to me, anyway):Doc (seeming to partially forget his lines): "We didn't expect - all these...mer-ders...Thorn."Thorn: "Well what DID you expect? You hired me to get rid of the sharecroppers and I'm doing it."Doc: "Aw, I goes it's all-what (all-right?)..."There's one part near the end that almost made me fall out of my chair laughing; somehow a couple people "see" that it isn't really Andy Jones, even though it is the SAME actor, looking exactly the same. Heh."You better talk or that mug of yours is going to look like a spoiled custard pie..." Hahaha.8/10