The Big Picture

• Haunted Gold, a strange mix of Western and horror, features John Wayne as a cowboy facing off against ghosts in a deserted town.
• Despite attempts at horror, the film is more silly than scary, with Wayne's cowboy charm and a ridiculous plot that fails to deliver real terror.
• Made for kids and fans of B-films, Haunted Gold offers pure entertainment with goofy moments, best enjoyed without the usual expectations for a horror movie.

Horror Westerns, by now, have firmly cemented their place inside the pantheon of American films, with movies like Bone Tomahawk putting a supernatural spin on the traditional duster. It's the meeting point of the loneliness and existential dread of an untamed America and the otherworldly terrors of the supernatural. Unknown, inhumane forces exact their toll in lurid cowboy fashion. The violence of the revisionist Western finds a new home here, unleashing a torrent of terror inside a timeless genre. But the roots of the horror Western go back almost as far as the history of film does and, unbelievably, the Duke himself even starred in one. John Wayne is an iconic Western actor known for his roles as a rugged American cowboy, doling out his brand of justice in the Old West with nothing but his will and a six-gun. Those trifling black-hatted baddies are no match for him, but what would happen if he put his true grit up against the ghosts and ghouls lurking out on the range or perhaps in an abandoned mine? That's exactly what happened in 1932 in the pre-code horror movie Haunted Gold.

What Is 'Haunted Gold' About?

John Wayne stars as John Mason, the white-hatted harmonica-playing cowboy casually out on a night ride away from home. This evening, his ranch hand, Clarence Washington Brown (Blue Washington), accompanies him. Mason has decided to check on an abandoned mine inside a dusty old ghost town that he is part owner of, and Clarence won't let him go alone, cautioning the sterling cowboy against ghosts that lurk somewhere in the darkness. Mason laughs it off, but when a mysterious riderless horse suddenly gallops by the two, they happen upon a note cautioning them from entering the mine. This only piques Mason's curiosity in the now-defunct mine, and he charges fearlessly into the creepy town against Clarence's advice.

Meanwhile, the loathsome black-hatted Joe Ryan (Harry Woods) and his gang of thugs are taking refuge inside a run-down house situated in a ghost town. Shadows crawl across the cobweb-covered walls, and the gang shudders in fear. They complain to Joe that the place is full of ghosts and beg him to leave, but Joe wants to stay because he, too, has a share in the mysterious abandoned mine. Suddenly, a dark shadow of a mysterious figure known only as The Phantom appears on the wall, scaring the living daylights out of this gang of murderous cutthroats, and they run into the dark and head on into Mason.

The two almost come to blows, but the kerfuffle is broken up by the mayor, who invites John back to his house when he learns that John's father was the original owner of the mine. Here, John meets Janet, who herself has been suspiciously lured to this spooky town by a mysterious letter from an unknown person. It turns out Joe Ryan's father framed Janet's father, Bill Carter (John T. Prince), and stole his share of the mine that rightfully belonged to Janet, which Joe currently has. With help from the mysterious Phantom, John, Janet, and Clarence face off against Ryan and his thugs in a showdown over who gets the gold and who will control the mine.

‘Haunted Gold’ Doesn’t Work as a Horror Movie

Calling this film a horror movie is a lot like calling Scooby-Doo a horror movie. Yes, there are mysterious villains with seemingly inhuman powers, but it's all just some disgruntled old man in a costume. Like the Phantom, who is really Janet's father. He lurks in the shadows, peeking through secret holes in grandfather's clocks and making his way through the town through a system of abandoned tunnels. He is the one who sent the notes to Janet and John and he's lured everybody to town to give Joe Ryan a reckoning. The film is more ridiculous than scary, with Wayne's cowboy sensibilities out of place in a horror movie. Haunted Gold has an off-balance feel, constantly trying to cram a square peg into a round hole. The film's horror elements undermine the Western motifs as a gaggle of black-hatted badasses scream and shake at every little creak and bump in the night. This strips the Ryan gang of any on-screen credibility as villains. They are entirely hapless fools who are often scared of their own shadow. In one scene where the Ryan gang has taken Clarence captive, they abandon him after hearing Janet scream when Joe captures her while she plays piano.

Wayne's performance is something you would expect from him, but it loses all its gravitas when placed inside a creepy old house with all the standard bump-in-the-night horror motifs against the softest gang in the world. John's good-guy charm carries him through the film, with his actions being more or less determined by a series of strange characters who seem weird just for the sake of being weird. A wraith-like old lady pours him tea, and he awkwardly stares at her. Janet and Clarence, who seem to see the Phantom everywhere, point in a direction, and off John will run to the rescue. Even his showdown with Ryan's gang in the abandoned feels like it didn't have a proper plan. He seems to be reacting to a bunch of stuff rather than driving the plot forward with his actions and ceases to be the proactive hero audiences know and love. This film isn't scary because there are no real stakes established, and it feels more like Wayne and Co. are never in any real danger and that this is all some giant joke on the part of The Phantom. Even John thinks so because, while Janet shivers in fright, telling John she feels as if some evil presence is watching them, he grins and tells her that he thinks everything will be alright.

The film fails miserably at being a horror film because it just isn't scary. It is, for lack of a better word, a type of Saturday morning cartoon come to life, and that's okay because that is precisely what the film was. How could a person find a film like this scary when a horse literally fights off one of the Ryan gang and knocks him off a cliff? Then, as John dangles from a mining cart dangling over a ravine, the horse figures out how to use the winch system and wheels his rider back to land. Then, with only a word from John, he gallops off to get reinforcements from the boys back at his ranch. That horse may be the greatest horse to ever live — but scary he is not.

This was an early moment in John Wayne's career. It was a time when studios would put him in a bunch of different kinds of roles to see how audiences would react. Haunted Gold was a film made for kids or fans of B-films and should be appreciated as such. Comparing this film to modern horror Westerns would be a grievous mistake and would deprive the viewer of a chance to just kick back and enjoy an absolutely ridiculous film full of goofy and unbelievable moments that are more pure entertainment than scares.

Haunted Gold is available to rent on Apple TV in the U.S.

Rent on Apple TV