The Phantom Stagecoach (1957)

Thanks for the memories!

Fantastic!

Excellent but underrated film

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

*** This review may contain spoilers *** *Plot and ending analyzed* The Phantom Stagecoach (1957) doesn't rise above the average rating, and it seems more like a TV Western, but there's some good stunt work with horses in here.The plot is a mysterious stranger helps ward off an attack on a stagecoach. He shows up in town, trying to help the Stagecoach owner with constant attacks on his Stage line. Turns out, he's actually a Wells Fargo agent. The Phantom Stagecoach of the title is an armored Stagecoach built by the men trying to sabotage the other Stage line. The Phantom Stagecoach chases the other stagecoach, but all they had to do was shoot the horses and disable the armored Stagecoach. But the chase scene is fun.Character actor Ray Teal (Decision at Sundown (1957), Hangman's Knot (1952) and Ace in the Hole (1951) is in here as a Sheriff, which he played often in many Westerns. Some of the horse chase scenes change midway, like they used some stock footage from another film. Still, it isn't the worst Western I've come across. It's an average one.

This movie has some of the best six horse coach scenes I have ever seen in a Western. There are numerous dialog scenes where the coach is obviously shot apart from the scenery, but mostly the galloping horses are filmed in full flight with sufficient time to appreciate each sequence.The story and acting are just run-of-the-mill but entertaining enough. We have the good guys, the bad guys and the bad guy who comes good in the end. I was surprised how well preserved the movie is with clear, crisp photography.

One more good little western produced by Wallace Mac Donald, the "rich man"'s Sam Katzman, even if the features he produced were not more expensive either. But far better. Many Columbia products not know from this side of the Atlantic - France - were made under the supervision of Mac Donald. The producer. And it seems that Ray Nazarro directed most of them.Speaking of this film, I like it well. It is fast paced, with good ideas, especially the "Phantom Stagecoach", a stagecoach with out driver outside, which attacks real stagecoaches, in order to rob them, of course. An investigator working undercover for Well's Fargo Company tries to capture the outlaws responsible of the robberies.Good standard movie, where we find the famous supporting heavy John Doucette. One of the most great bad guys of B pictures of the 40's, 50's and early 60's...