Texas Rangers Tex, Dave, and Panhandle arrive in Piyoute to apprehend the Whispering Skull, a night rider who wears a leather mask with a skull design and whose horse makes no noise and leaves no trail. The Skull has just murdered Lafe Jeffers, who was holding a strange brown rock that the Rangers seem to think must be a motive for the murder. In town, Duke Walters, resident bad guy, plan to commit a series of crimes and be able to pin them all on the Skull. Sheriff Jackson (who sent for the Rangers) swears out a warrant for the Skull and says he knows who he is and will able to serve the warrant out to him before the night is over. He is mysteriously shot in the back of Walters' saloon, but manages to live (known only by Tex, Dave, and Doc Humphrey) and is attended to so that he can reveal the Skull's identity. Panhandle, in the meantime, is made marshall of the town by Walters with the job of rounding up the Skull, but is called by his fellow Rangers to stop Walter's intended holdup of the stage, which the Skull would also like to rob. Another of the Texas Rangers series which sounds good on paper, but doesn't quite live up to expectations. The Skull is only in the beginning and end scenes, so he really isn't that imposing a villain, but the Skull suspects are good red herrings. The revelation doesn't reveal how the Skull's horse was able to noiseless and trackless which disappointed me. Tex Ritter's two songs were pretty good for the cheapie western. Rating, based on B westerns, 6.
3 Reviews
Generic cowboy adventure
Leofwine_draca30 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
THE WHISPERING SKULL is a standard western adventure for singing cowboy star Tex Ritter. The tale is about a masked killer who roams the plains at night and bumps off various people for whatever nefarious reasons. Ritter and his townsfolk buddies must solve the mystery of the murder before any more are killed.
This is cheap and cheerful stuff; it's never boring because it's very fast paced; the version I watched clocked in at just 48 minutes. The main problem with watching it today is the poor quality of the presentation which means that all of the night scenes (and there are quite a few of them) take place in pitch blackness.
Ritter is a stock hero figure who sings at one point, which I could have done without, but the titular villain at least looks imposing. There's a lot of horse riding here, some very dodgy comedy from one particular idiotic character, and at least one fight scene. It's generic stuff indeed, but not the worst.
This is cheap and cheerful stuff; it's never boring because it's very fast paced; the version I watched clocked in at just 48 minutes. The main problem with watching it today is the poor quality of the presentation which means that all of the night scenes (and there are quite a few of them) take place in pitch blackness.
Ritter is a stock hero figure who sings at one point, which I could have done without, but the titular villain at least looks imposing. There's a lot of horse riding here, some very dodgy comedy from one particular idiotic character, and at least one fight scene. It's generic stuff indeed, but not the worst.
Another PRC Dud
Chance2000esl20 June 2009
Warning: Spoilers
This is an Alexander-Stern production released by PRC and it's a dud. 'Texas Rangers' Tex (Tex Ritter) and Dave (Dave O'Brien) are seemingly on the trail of 'The Whispering Skull,' a night riding robber and killer who wears a skull mask.
The major problem with this movie? The focus of the film is to talk about, rather than to strongly feature The Whispering Skull. We get scene after scene of characters talking about The Skull, and trying, or at least hoping, to uncover his identity; but the Skull is barely even in the movie (except for the beginning and the end) and does not have a featured presence in it. The characters talk about him more than we see the Skull do anything.
Also bad are the tedious photography of characters constantly walking around in and out of the frame, Dave O' Brien's dull and inflectionless delivery, the tendency to explain off stage action (no wonder it's only 56 minutes), and the non sequiter sequences -- take, for example, Tex and Dave walking separately to their horses at night to spooky music, and riding out of town to a cabin which Tex enters and sits down to (finally) sing a song. Then Dave comes in, explains more of the plot, and they ride back to town. Or take the too many close ups of Tex and Dave just staring. In one of them, with Dave bored and spinning rocks on a desk, Panhandle (Guy Wilkerson) says, "How long are we gonna sit around waiting for the judge?" Too much of this film is standing around, walking around, going in and out of rooms, etc. You'll never see so many openings and closings of doors until the director Elmer Clifton's door mania in 'Seven Doors to Death' (1944).
Not especially an action packed western. I'm a Tex Ritter fan, but he really doesn't do much here. The same for the dastardly I. Stanford Jolley as the town villain. So I have to give it a 2. Seeing this film makes you wonder if Ed Wood learned his film making craft by watching this and other PRC clunkers.
The major problem with this movie? The focus of the film is to talk about, rather than to strongly feature The Whispering Skull. We get scene after scene of characters talking about The Skull, and trying, or at least hoping, to uncover his identity; but the Skull is barely even in the movie (except for the beginning and the end) and does not have a featured presence in it. The characters talk about him more than we see the Skull do anything.
Also bad are the tedious photography of characters constantly walking around in and out of the frame, Dave O' Brien's dull and inflectionless delivery, the tendency to explain off stage action (no wonder it's only 56 minutes), and the non sequiter sequences -- take, for example, Tex and Dave walking separately to their horses at night to spooky music, and riding out of town to a cabin which Tex enters and sits down to (finally) sing a song. Then Dave comes in, explains more of the plot, and they ride back to town. Or take the too many close ups of Tex and Dave just staring. In one of them, with Dave bored and spinning rocks on a desk, Panhandle (Guy Wilkerson) says, "How long are we gonna sit around waiting for the judge?" Too much of this film is standing around, walking around, going in and out of rooms, etc. You'll never see so many openings and closings of doors until the director Elmer Clifton's door mania in 'Seven Doors to Death' (1944).
Not especially an action packed western. I'm a Tex Ritter fan, but he really doesn't do much here. The same for the dastardly I. Stanford Jolley as the town villain. So I have to give it a 2. Seeing this film makes you wonder if Ed Wood learned his film making craft by watching this and other PRC clunkers.
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