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5.5/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.5/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Galloping Ghost remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Honestly, you probably only watch The Galloping Ghost if you have a weird obsession with old sports history or if you’re doing a deep dive into 1930s serials. If you want a slick, modern sports movie, you’re going to hate this. It’s clunky, the acting is... let’s call it enthusiastic, and the pacing is all over the place.
But if you like watching movies that feel like they were held together by tape and pure willpower, it’s a weirdly fun time. Just don’t go in expecting Against All Odds levels of tension.
Seeing the real Red Grange on screen is a trip. He isn’t exactly a trained actor, and you can see him thinking about his lines for a second too long in every single shot. It’s endearing, in a way. He’s much better when he’s just running around, which he does a lot.
The plot about gambling fixers at a taxi company is so 1931 it hurts. There’s a lot of guys leaning against brick walls, whispering about "the big game" while looking like they’re about to sneeze. It’s all very dramatic and very, very silly.
There’s this one sequence where the bad guys are trying to pressure Buddy, and the scene just... kind of ends. It’s like the editor decided they were done and just cut to the next thing. No goodbye, no exit, just a hard cut to someone else walking down a hallway. It’s jarring but also kind of great in its imperfection.
It’s not trying to be a masterpiece. It’s just trying to get the football hero from A to B without the studio losing too much money. You can almost feel the lack of budget in every frame, especially when the "crowd" shots look like they grabbed six people from the local office and told them to clap quietly.
Is it better than Molly's Millions? Hard to say. They’re both relics, but this one has more football gear, so it wins in my book. 🏈
