The Galloping Ghost (1931)

Director:

B. Reeves Eason

Writers:

Helmer Walton Bergman (story) &
Ford Beebe (story) ...

Release Date:

1 September 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Crime | Sport

Plot:

A gambling ring run out of the Mogul Taxi company is intent on fixing college football games. Football...

Plot Keywords:

Game | Football | College | Gambler | Serial

Cast

Harold 'Red' Grange	...	'Red' Grange
Dorothy Gulliver	...	Barbara Courtland
Tom Dugan	...	Jerry - Stuttering Cabbie
Gwen Lee	...	Irene Courtland
Ralph Bushman	...	'Buddy' Courtland (as Francis X. Bushman Jr.)
Theodore Lorch	...	The Crippled Stranger
Walter Miller	...	George Elton
Edward Hearn	...	Clay College Coach Harlow
Ernie Adams	...	Brady - Henchman (as Ernie S. Adams)
Tom London	...	Mullins - Henchman
Frank Brownlee	...	Tom - Cab Company Dispatcher
Edward Peil Sr.	...	Coach of Baxter Team (as Edward Peil)
Joseph P. Mack	...	Lefty, Henchman (as Joe Mack)
Stepin Fetchit	...	Baxter College Locker Room Attendant
Dick Dickinson	...	Mogul Taxi Clerk-Bribed Foorball Player Byrns [Chs. 6-7, 9]

Runtime:

USA:226 min (12 chapters)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Disney Film Recording System)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Clay College, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Mascot Pictures

Trivia:

Chapter Titles: - 1. The Idol of Clay - 2. The Port of Peril - 3. The Master Mind - 4. The House of Secrets - 5. The Man Without a Face - 6. The Torn $500 Bill - 7. When the Lights Went Out - 8. The Third Degree - 9. The Sign in the Sky - 10.The Vulture's Lair - 11.The Radio Patrol - 12.The Ghost Comes Back

Pretty bad

There are a couple of things about this serial that I really liked. One, the old vehicles and planes. Two, the street scenes of Los Angeles and a couple of scenes from football games in a bygone era.

The story is silly, never in the least convincing. The action is way, way over the top; Grange et al. flail clumsily at each other in every chapter, sometimes several times. And all sorts of horrible things happen to Grange, without him having a smudge on his suit, a scratch on his face, or even a sore knuckle from fighting. The dialog is so stiff that I winced several times. And worst of all is the acting, if it can be called that. Grange was a great football player, by all accounts, for the University of Illinois and in the NFL, but he couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. He and Babe Ruth, another poor actor in movies, should have stuck with sport.

The segues between episodes are narrated, rather than written as in most other serials. And are these segues bad! They begin each chapter after the first. Each episode ends with a villainous laugh by a man who is described as a "cripple." That was actually rather good.

This doesn't leave us with much--except the old cars, planes, trolleys, and the long ago street scenes.