JohnHowardReid Producer: Sigmund Neufeld. Copyright 3 March 1945 by P.R.C. Pictures, Inc. No New York opening. U.S. release: 3 February 1945. Not theatrically released in Australia. 6 reels. 54 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A crooked sheriff and the local doctor employ a gang of outlaws to run homesteaders out of the valley.COMMENT: Not a single female in sight, so I think we can safely assume that this entry was wholly and exclusively intended for the moppet audiences of Saturday matinees. That's a pity, because the basic premise of the story holds more promise than the usual Billy "B", but it's largely worked out in a thoroughly bland and conventional fashion. True, Newfield's direction, complete with a few running inserts, is competent enough and it's always nice to see heavies like Charles King and Karl Hackett run through their familiar paces. And for once, St John gets a chance to shine, — in a dual role.OTHER VIEWS: Not a few directors and photographers would have grasped the opportunities presented by this entry for some atmospheric effects in the horror vein. But Newfield seems determined to play potential thrills not only as blandly as possible, but mainly to garner laughs from an easily titivated moppet audience. - JHR writing as "George Addison".

MartinHafer 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.

FightingWesterner In His Brother's Ghost, Al St. John takes center stage as both Fuzzy Jones and his twin brother Andy, a rancher besieged by villains trying to take over his spread.Mortally wounded, he sends for Fuzzy, who then teams up with Billy Carson to battle the bad guys by dressing as his now dead brother and playing ghost to frighten the superstitious baddies into spilling the beans on their mystery employer.Another typical entry in Producers Releasing Corporation's Billy Carson series, this has some okay action and St. John is great, really getting to show off his acting skills in the scenes where Andy lays dying.Another great scene has Fuzzy staring through a window and getting a rise from a dim-witted gunman, disappearing into the darkness before the frightened man's companions can notice.However, His Brother's Ghost hits a low point (for the film and the series) when Fuzzy hides behind a skinny wooden post and pokes out his head and shoulders a' la Looney Tunes. That was just too silly, even for a Saturday morning matinée western!

rsoonsa This film is one of a series starring Buster Crabbe as Billy Carson, a rancher who spends a good portion of his time attempting to better the lives of sharecroppers and others who run afoul of varying murderous plotters; in this instance, a friend of Carson is killed and replaced by his twin brother, causing consternation amidst the villains who are convinced that the twin is a vengeful ghost. Most of this short (54 min.) work consists of two small groups of extraordinarily confident horsemen who canter about, chasing and shooting at each other, in essentially non-stop fashion; one's attention becomes drawn to spotting the interchangeability of the good and bad guys......nothing else here warrants a viewer's concentration.