AllMovie

Directed and written by Bruce Mitchell, this airborne Western melodrama starred real-life flying ace Al Wilson as Dick Stanton, a border patrol aviator who comes to the aid of beleaguered rancher John Crandall (Buck Connors) and his brood. Crandall is having problems with imperious cattle owner Julia Hart (Mary Cornwallis), who refuses to share her water with the neighboring ranchers. When one of Julia's men, Joe Calvert (Larry Steers), shoots and wounds Nick Crandall (Billy "Red" Jones), Stanton rescues the boy by flying in a doctor. Later, when Joe kidnaps Mary Crandall, Nick's sister (Lillian Gilmore), in a plane, Stanton once again comes to the rescue. The most successful of several aviators turned silent screen actors, the handsome, mustachioed Wilson was, like so many of his colleagues, killed in an airplane crash, near Cleveland, OH, September 5, 1932. The Phantom Flyer was released by Universal as an "Air Thriller."