Monte Rawlins Movies
A performer with an aerial circus and a movie sound technician, Dean Spencer appeared as such in Stunt Pilot (1939) and was also cast in a couple of Jack Randall Westerns. Despite the brevity of his roles, the neophyte performer showed enough promise for independent producer B.F. Zeidman to cast him in a proposed series of "Roving Buckaroos" oaters opposite hillbilly singer Larry Mason (aka Art Davis) and rube performer Sonny Lamont. Spencer was awarded a marquee-ready moniker, Monte Rawlins, but only one Western was actually produced: The Adventures of the Masked Phantom (1939). Part standard music oater, part rural comedy, the oddball picture may have become a victim of the collapse of Grand National, a struggling Poverty Row producer who, that year, also released a series of "Singing Cowgirl" oaters starring Dorothy Page. Spencer/Rawlins later enlisted in the Marine Corps during WWII, and, still later, became a sound technician for Monogram and Walt Disney. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi- 1938
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Despite its obscure, poverty-stricken origins, or perhaps because of them, this music Western remains a bizarre, one-of-a-kind delight. Not the least of the film's oddball pleasures is Grandma Mary Barton (Dot Karroll), a "rip snortin,' two-gun kind of a gal" and the owner, with grandson Stanley (Matty Kemp), of the Miracle Gold Mining Company. Company foreman Murdock (George Douglas) is engaged in the lucrative side business of smelting stolen gold and selling it back to the government. After confronting his foreman, young Stan is forced to flee for his life but is saved by a mysterious stranger, Alamo (Monte Rawlins). Inspired by grandma's tall tales, Alamo dons the garb of a masked avenger and manages to put the fear of God into Murdock and his gang. Sidekick Larry Mason (aka Art Davis) performs Lew Porter and Johnny Lange's "Masked Phantom", A Rip-Rip Snortin' Two-Gun Gal" and "Prairie Rose". ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
