Other than that, there was no fantasy, slapstick, or sci-fi to be found in his filmography, despite the producer’s best attempts to mislead the public into thinking Thunder Riders of the Golden West featured a never-before-seen Wayne performance, which in reality was repurposed footage from his old pictures.

Back in the early 1930s, though, he didn’t have much of a choice. Although the actor had plenty of credits to his name, they were either uncredited, supporting parts, or bit-part roles, giving him no influence over his trajectory. Things began looking up when he signed a contract with Warner Bros in 1932, with the studio signing him to a six-film deal that paid him $1,500 a pop.

Naturally, the sextet were all obliged to be westerns, but there’s an outlier among Ride Him, Cowboy, The Big Stampede, and Haunted Gold, which all ran for less than an hour, were released within four months of each other, and saw him playing a character called John, which means originality was in short supply.

Alongside his trusty horse, which was ironically called Duke, John Mason follows a mysterious letter to an abandoned mine, where he meets Sheila Terry’s Janet Carter. As it turns out, there’s said to be treasure hidden deep in the mine, which puts the duo in the crosshairs of a rogue band of outlaws.

Fortunately, they get some help from a ghostly apparition, which pops up at various points to terrify the antagonists. There’s some novelty value in seeing ‘The Duke’ in a supposedly haunted house and wandering around ominous graveyards, but the plot will be awfully familiar to anyone who’s ever seen an episode of Scooby-Doo.

Even though the ‘phantom’ appears to have supernatural powers and can apparate and disapparate at will, it’s really just a guy in a costume who doesn’t want people stealing his bounty. Not just any guy, either, but Janet’s father, who was double-crossed by the villain and wanted to bring him back to town to exact his revenge.

Characters being lured to an isolated and abandoned town plagued by rumours of ghosts? An ominous figure convincing everyone that a spectre from beyond the grave is haunting them? Eyes peeping through holes in walls? The twist is that it’s merely a costume-wearing nuisance who wanted to protect what’s theirs and concocted an elaborate, otherworldly ruse to back it up?

Yep, those are the standard elements for any Scooby-Doo episode. And also Haunted Gold. Wayne didn’t exactly recall that period of his career particularly fondly, but as he told Michael Munn, they served a purpose: “Those films offered me regular work and an opportunity to learn my craft.” It’s hardly Bone Tomahawk, but it’s nonetheless the only western/horror hybrid that ever starred ‘The Duke’.

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