a5c7b9f00b Cowboy Larry O&#39;Day and his sidekick Lucky Smith happen upon a distraught Barbara Hartwell, who is about to be arrested for the murder of her uncle. With Barbara behind bars, Larry is determined to find the real killer and soon finds himself in the middle of a mystery involving crazed German entomologists and a smuggling ring bringing Chinese &quot;picture girls&quot; across the Mexican border for sale to wealthy Chinese bachelors. Border Phantom stars Bob Steele who when he was a B movie Cowboy hero, I always got the impression he was trying to be a James Cagney out west. Steele was a short man like Cagney and always played it with a chip on his shoulder.<br/><br/>Republic did not do right by it Mr. Steele at least in this one. I guess that after Gene Autry and Roy Rogers the other cowboy heroes got the leavings. This was definitely a story need not to have been filmedBob Steele puts an end to of all things, a racket involving arranged Chinese marriages. Who&#39;d a thunk it.<br/><br/>Bob Steele was certainly capable of better things, just see him in The Big Sleep. And he was always greata villain like in The Big Sleep or South of St. Louis with Joel McCrea. <br/><br/>He should have concentrated there instead of making these forgettable oaters. This is without a doubt the worst Bob Steele film I have ever seen. While I wouldn&#39;t go so farto give it a 1 like bkoganbing did, I sure thought it was terrible. What&#39;s worse is that some of Bob Steele&#39;s westerns were quite good, so I knew he was capable of much, much better.<br/><br/>The film is set in the modern day and is about a murdered entomologist. The sheriff is about the dumbest guy I&#39;ve ever seen in one of these films and he&#39;s intent on arresting the dead guy&#39;s niece only minutes after he&#39;s arrived to investigate. However, an unknown benefactor helps her escape jail–and immediately the moron sheriff assumes Larry (Bob Steele) did it–mostly because Larry had the unmitigated gall to be a stranger in town AND question the idiot sheriff&#39;s competence. Naturally, good &#39;ol Larry didn&#39;t do it and, surprisingly, the leads point towards a guy smuggling in illegal aliens!!! <br/><br/>The plot is certainly bizarre, but this isn&#39;t the only thing working against this terrible film. For some odd reason, the writer felt it was important to pepper the movie with jokes–none of which were funny or worked in the least. Add to that the most shiftless and annoying sidekick in movie history and you have the makings of a lousy B-film. Not 100% terrible…just 98.7%!
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