PHANTOM PATROL (1936)

There's a nationwide manhunt going on for killer "Dapper Dan" Geary who is hiding out in a hotel room doing crossword puzzles. His underling Jojo tells him he's "hotter than jailhouse coffee," and suggests they take it on the lam. Geary sees a picture of famous crime writer Stephen Morris in the paper and realizes he's a dead ringer for Morris except for the author's goatee, so the two take off for the backwoods of Manitoba, Canada, where Morris is vacationing. Geary, with a goatee, ties Morris up and hides him away, and takes on Morris' identity. Meanwhile, handsome Mountie Jim McGregor (Kermit Maynard) is on the trail of the Frenchie Le Farge gang. He captures two of them, but Frenchie and the others get away and take refuge at Morris's isolated cabin. They recognize Geary in disguise and he lets them stay. As Morris, Geary goes into town and becomes friendly with Jim, Inspector McCloud, and McCloud's daughter Doris, who is Jim's girlfriend. When Geary is talked into hiring Doris to be his secretary, he improvises by dictating a story by famous French author Guy de Maupassant as though it were his own. Doris doesn’t catch on, but later, Jim does. Eventually, when lumberjack payroll money and jewels flaunted at a masked ball become targets for Geary and the Le Farge gang, can Jim and the Mounties foil their nefarious plans?

I know of no earthly reason this is called PHANTOM PATROL. Those words are never used in the movie, and no one even acts in a phantomly fashion. Still, this is good fun: an hour-long Canadian Western with a handsome hero, a lovely lady who eventually becomes a damsel in distress, fisticuffs and shootouts, and even a song which Jim and his Mountie buddies sing in their undershirts! (See the picture at right.) Kermit Maynard has a classic all-American athletic hero look (even though Jim is apparently Canadian) and is quite good here. He appeared in 300 movies, mostly in small uncredited roles in westerns, and was never as big a star as his brother Ken who headlined several B-westerns in the 30s and 40s, though on the evidence of this film, Kermit should have been just as big a star. Joan Barclay (Doris) also had a steady career in B-westerns. Paul Fix, another western stalwart, is amusing as Jojo, and British actor Harry Worth does a nice job in the dual role of bad guy Geary and hostage Morris. One of the charms of this film is its sense of humor—it manages to be light and amusing without turning slapstick or using heavy-handed comic relief. Some IMDb viewers call it "goofy" (I'm assuming they are mostly referring to the undershirt song) but to me, it all seemed charming. I'd like to search out more Kermit Maynard movies. The print on YouTube is awfully choppy and splicy but the image quality is clear and sharp. [YouTube]