The Ghost Rider (1935) User Reviews

Action packed Western featuring Franklyn Farnum

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 14 March 2011]

This is an action packed western featuring Franklyn Farnum whose entry shows 505 credits and a film career that started in 1916 and which still had another 25years to run.This is one of those westerns where the action continues apace from the fade in to the fade out.It is the usual tale of vengeance with lots of gunfights fistfights and chases.Farnum having wronly been convicted for murder,escapes from prison to set matters to rights and leaves a playing card as a sign of a visit or impending visit.Given that Farnum was nearly 60 when he made this film he looks in pretty good shape unlike many of the older western stars of this era.It is everything you would expect from a B western.

An average "B" western!

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 1 October 2014]

The Ghost Rider (1935) starts off most promisingly with a visual singing cowpoke backing up the credits but as soon as the movie itself starts with juvenile Bobby Nelson facing into the camera, interest tends to slip, Fortunately, interest picks up when Anna Lee Carroll enters and moves up another notch when Lloyd Ingraham comes on as the villain. We are then transferred to the State Prison Farm where Franklyn Farnum (who tends out to be the hero of this oater, despite his innocuous fourth billing) makes an impressive escape. But from then on, although the movie offers a fair bit of "B" western action, it's all rather ordinary. One of the problems is that Bobby Nelson keeps surfacing – and he's an indifferent actor at best – but we see very little of Anna Lee Carroll. Instead, Rex Lease attempts to provide us with a hero, but both script and director let him down. In all, it's Farnum's movie but everyone except us seems to be unaware of that fact! Available on a good Grapevine DVD on a double bill with "The Man From Hell".