Duke, go to the ranch, and get the boys
I viewed this film for only one reason. It may not have been worth it. I wanted to see a film that contained the "Black Bird" used in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941).

Spooky town, sliding panels, mysterious tunnels, spooky eyes, and a phantom all have to be dealt with in this film. More still unrealistic characters, stilted dialog and a suggestion that the phantom had a watermelon accent.

Basic story is different owners and quasi owners of an abandoned gold mine were invites by cryptic letters promising it is worth the trip. One of the owners of the mine is a young John Wayne.

If you are wondering why Duke is a better actor than most the other characters, that is because he had six moves to his acting career and dialog aside has the most visual cliff hanger action. One of the most memorable scenes in this film is when Clarence (Blue Washington) is in a phantom suite and Duke is ready to kill. Clarence asks "Duke don't you recognize me and Duke shakes his head no. Clarence takes off the phantom hood and asks Duke again this time Duke shakes his head yes.

This has all the feel of a serial. And we are not sure it will wrap up.

Mixing Genres
Plenty of reviews have already mentioned the racial component to this film. I was somewhat surprised that Warners gave this film a DVD release because of it. However, they should be applauded for releasing the film without censoring or burying it, if only to reveal the film as a document of its time.

That said, HAUNTED GOLD is really a fascinating mixture of genres. If Charles Dickens had written a western it might have looked like this. Erville Alderson carries himself like Uriah Heep. The dark house, with its secret passages and secrets in general, looks a lot like the old house in Don Knott's THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN. Throw in an episode of Scooby Doo and you have a pretty good idea of HAUNTED GOLD.

The mix of genres--mystery, western, comedy--makes for an interesting novelty picture, if not an interesting western.

For a couple of dollars more, this film is also available as a Triple Feature DVD with RIDE HIM, COWBOY and THE BIG STAMPEDE. The Triple Feature DVD, though a double-sided disc with no extras, is certainly the better buy.

Politically Incorrect Western Ghost Movie
"Haunted Gold" gets a 3 star rating in my book because it is rather unique among the pre-"Stagecoach" John Wayne movies. Most of those early movies do well to warrent a 2 star rating and are worth watching solely because Wayne is generally always worth watching. When it comes to plots, however, they all tend to follow a predictable sequence; young woman's family encounters trouble from bad guys, John Wayne emerges to help, bad guys temporarily disgrace, discredit or disempower Wayne's character, young lady and family fall victim (often with the loss of grandfather, father, uncle, or older brother), Wayne returns to action and saves the day, the ranch, and the girl (for himself). All this usually takes about 55 minutes and involves a trusty horse (often Duke), a comical sidekick or two, and the evil nemisis.

In "Haunted Gold" you might say that all the elements are there but give the writer credit for adding a strong element of suspense (at least strong for B movie standards). A group of men are called to an abandoned mine in the Old West. There is a phantom lurking about, peeping through peep holes, and disappearing into nowhere. There is also Blue Washington, a Black actor in "Haunted Gold" whom I didn't recall from any other movies. However, I googled his name and the word actor. Besides being remind by numerous entries about Washington being a politically Blue state, I saw that Blue Washington appeared in a number of movies during the 20's and 30's (including bit parts in "King Kong" and GWTW). I mention this because I thought he was pretty good in his role. Unfortunately, it was difficult to see him in his role as a sort of underpaid Stepin Fetchit. Naturally, he gets scared more than any of the others and there's the scene where he gets covered with dirt and dust and turns "white". Otherwise, the mystery, the exciting fight scenes, the scret entrances and exits, all serve to make this early Wayne movie a cut above the others.

Average B western
I found myself bored with this as I do with all of Dukes earlier works. Fun to watch once but I never feel the need to repeat viewings. Haunted Gold is an average B western with the same substandard script and poor acting, but the action is very good. As for the earlier Duke films, if you're looking for quality westerns, I HIGHLY recommend the following: Helltown(Dukes best early performance), The Big Trail(Absolutley a grand spectacle in early filmmaking and the first widescreen movie)and Angel and the Badman(good script).

Haunted Gold
My family and I enjoyed this movie very much. It showed a lighter side to Wayne.