Le fantôme

Bon film !

An American Western; A story about two people who find themselves the targets of a frontier outlaw and his vicious gang after being summoned to a mine which appears to be haunted. John Wayne and Sheila Terry have good chemistry in this modest B-movie but Blue Washington's character is an unfortunate stereotype for comedy. The story is a remake of The Phantom City (1928) and a blend of ghost story and old-fashioned land dispute. The story is silly and thinly plotted the whole way but the spooky tone provides some quaint distraction.

Sheila Terry and John Wayne don't know each other, but their fathers were partners in a played-out gold mine. They've each received letters asking them to come to the ghost town near the mine, where Harry Woods is claiming a half interest. The movie starts off with some Old Dark House tropes, including someone watching from behind the walls. You can see the beginnings of a faster pace for westerns, with half the players talking at an annoyingly slow clip, while Miss Terry, Wayne, Woods, and Blue Washington is Wayne's comic sidekick speak like human beings. The riding sequences, as usual for this period, go on for far too long. It's an interesting idea to mix two genres, but the abrupt dropping of the horror elements to move ahead with the plot makes that a waste of time.

John Wayne is Mason, in an early, credited role. Mason finds a note, which warns people to stay away from the Sally Ann Mine. of course, Mason owns half the rights to the mine, so he's not scared. he meets up with Janet Carter, whose father owned the other half at one point. but doesn't any more. the buildings all have secret hallways and passages, and someone or something steals the deed to Mason's mine. some inappropriate names they call the black actor which may have been common at the time the film was made, but is certainly very wrong now. this was a remake of Phantom City, acc to the trivia. old scenes from other films were included into this one. and it's only 58 minutes long as it is! the usual chases on horseback, fist fights, this one with running around the tunnels of a gold mine. a very young John Wayne, so he didn't have his slow, swagger yet. directed by Mack Wright. he had certainly put in his time as actor and assistant director, working up the ladder. it's okay.

This western reminds me of an "old house film".....a ghost town with a "real" ghost! Secret panels, shadows on the walls, eyes peering thru slits in the walls, etc. It also gives Blue Washington the chance for some great "scared reaction" comedy (ala' Mantan Moreland or Willie Best). I don't much care for westerns, but the "supernatural" elements in this film make it worth watching!

Haunted Gold is perhaps the closest John Wayne ever got to making a horror picture. It comes complete with secret passages, a ghostly figure, a graveyard, and a creepy butler. There's great spooky atmosphere in the early scenes but the scary stuff is soon abandoned in favor of a more conventional tale featuring bandits and the theft of a gold mine. The photography and sets are exquisite and the action scenes are top-notch, even if the script is typical. Fans of John Wayne and nineteen-thirties B-westerns will find it interesting if not entirely spectacular. However, Haunted Gold is tainted a bit by the racial stereotypes represented by Wayne's annoying sidekick Clarence, played by Blue Washington. The modern viewer might get a little embarrassed while watching it.

An early Wayne western. Very entertaining and just plain fun! Wayne plays John Mason. He receives a letter prompting him to return and claim his half of a gold mine called the "Sally Anne". When Wayne returns he finds a girl … imagine that! She by chance had also received a letter. He then finds himself taking on some bandits in a haunted mine with a crazy catacomb of tunnels, under a ghost town, complete with creepy shadows, trap doors, secret passages & even organ music. As stated above it's just a fun who-dun-it. A weird kind of mix of mystery meets western. To the best of my recollection this had never been done prior to this movie ... and even if it had it was still a bit refreshing for me.

Early "B" John Wayne western with Duke playing a cowboy who comes to a ghost town where a bunch of bad hombres are looking for gold. There's a mysterious character named The Phantom trying to scare people away. Duke even rides a horse named Duke! He also has a black sidekick named Clarence that is the stereotypical "afraid of spooks" caricature of the time. So some viewers might take offense to that. It's a mix of genres and since Wayne never did any proper horror films, this is about as close as you're likely to get to seeing him in one. There are some attempts at horror/mystery atmosphere but it's pretty much a routine western of its type. Worth seeing for a baby-faced John Wayne and some good old school stunt work. Erville Alderson is a spooky plus. The original Maltese Falcon statuette from the 1931 film can be seen atop an organ in one scene. Pretty cool!

An early John Wayne western that only ran for an hour, this was surprisingly entertaining. Since he was a beginning actor and this was a Grade B-type of production, I didn't except it to be so entertaining, although now that I've watched a lot of early '30s films, I am not surprised. Movies in that era were pretty fast- moving ones. What makes this fun is the combination of western action, a few spooky things and comedy. The latter is mostly supplied by Blue Washington who plays "Clarence Washington Brown," a Mantan Morleand-like character. Yeah, I know this kind of role is demeaning to blacks and it's almost embarrassing to watch nowadays, but Washington was funny. The "western" part of the story is just so-so.