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Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Lame oater even by matinee standards. There's little action, no suspense, and hokey scenes building up 10-year old Cody Jr. In fact, it's really the aggressive youngster who thwarts the baddies, while Dad (Cody Sr.) amiably gives up the spotlight. Then too, judging from all the rope tying and twirling, one might think somebody had a big interest in hemp rather than in westerns. There is some hard riding, and a humorous turn from old goat Buster. Also, the spooky dress-up scenes are pretty well done thanks mainly to the costuming and lighting. Nonetheless, events are limply directed with scenes following one another in no particular order. All in all, the hour looks like an effort at literally putting together a kids' western that failed.

The Vanishing Riders (1935) * 1/2 (out of 4)Sheriff Bill Jones (Bill Cody) has to shoot a man in the line of duty and afterwards noticing that the man's son Tim (Bill Cody, Jr.) is going to be an orphan. The Sheriff agrees to take the boy as his own and soon the two of them are investigating an old haunted mine where bad guy Wolf Larson (Wally Wales) is working.THE VANISHING RIDERS is a pretty bad "C" Western from the days where these type of films were probably being released weekly. This one here manages to have a few interesting moments throughout but there are just way too many bad ones to keep this thing from being better known. As you can tell, this was mainly a film where Cody and his son could share the screen but sadly this here is one of the weakest aspects. The sugar-coated cute scenes are just annoying and come across more laughable than anything else.The actual performances aren't anything too special either with both Cody's coming across rather bland. Wales doesn't make for much of a bad guy either but I will say Bud Buster gets a few funny lines as the sidekick. The one thing that does somewhat work are the horror elements including the various talks about the mine being haunted as well as the ending where we get a lot of characters dresses up as skeletons. Still, THE VANISHING RIDERS doesn't have enough going for it to make it worth viewing.

Although there are some interesting aspects to "The Vanishing Riders", exceptionally low production values doom this to the grade-C level at best. The film stars Bill Cody--and, oddly enough, that is his real name! You'd think his having the same name as Buffalo Bill Cody would have been the result of some studio, but according to IMDb that was his name. And, also interesting is that Cody's son, Bill Junior also stars in the film. However, apart from that there really isn't much to recommend this one. The reason is that it's not even good enough for most B-movies--coming from a tiny film studio and starring a bunch of folks who simply cannot act. The overall product is cheap, dull and uninspiring--with no incidental music nor money spent to make it look anything other than a cut-rate production. By the way, about seven minutes was trimmed from this one, though I doubt is anyone would care.

When Budd Buster (veteran of over 300 TV and movie westerns) says that the villain, Wolf Larsen, is "raising heck!" you can tell this one looks like it was made for children. If not, it must have been put together to follow P.T. Barnum's words of wisdom, "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American Public." (Or was it Vince McMahon who said that?) It's in the long line of ghost town / ghost cave / ghost rider cheapies so common in B westerns of the thirties and forties. But even that dignifies the movie too much. Nothing worthwhile here, except to see that the real star of the film, Bill Cody, Jr. (who must have been about 10 years old) can out act his father, Bill Cody, Sr., who is best known for starring in "the worst B movie western ever made." (Let's see if you can fnd it.)The director, Robert Hill, is best known for directing 'Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars' (1938), felt by many to be the weakest of the three 'Flash Gordon' serials (though it features strong work by Charles Middleton as Ming the Merciless). In this one we see Hal Taliaferro (Wally Wales) featured prominently as the evil gang leader, but otherwise it's a double F: File and Forget. I generously give it a 2.