Riders of the Purple Sage (1925)

A Texas Ranger searches for his kidnapped sister.

Director:

Lynn Reynolds

Writers:

Zane Grey, Edfrid A. Bingham (scenario)

Stars:

Tom Mix, Beatrice Burnham, Arthur Morrison

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Tom Mix	...	Jim Carson aka Jim Lassiter
Beatrice Burnham	...	Milly Erne
Arthur Morrison	...	Frank Erne
Warner Oland	...	Lew Walters aka Judge Dyer
Wilfred Lucas	...	Oldring
Mabel Ballin	...	Jane Withersteen
Charles Le Moyne	...	Richard Tull (as Charles LeMoyne)
Harold Goodwin	...	Bern Venters

Storyline

When Lew Walters and his three henchmen kidnap Millie and her child, her brother Jim Carson sets out to find her. Now known as Jim Lassiter, he kills the three henchman. In Cottonwood County he joins up with rancher Jane Witherspoon in her fight against the rustling Riders of the Purple Sage. The crooked County Judge is Dyer, who unknown to Lassiter is really Lew Walters.

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Plot Keywords:

judge | lawyer | child abuse | orphan | gunfire | 

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Genres:

Western

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Certificate:

TV-G

Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

15 March 1925 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der Rächer

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

56 min 56 min (1973 alternate)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Crazy Credits

The alternate version has non-original cast credits. Except for 'Tom Mix' , whose name appears above the title, actors originally were not credited in this movie at the start or at the end. Instead, 8 additional actors and their character names are credited in the intertitles right before they appear on-screen and are listed in the same order in the IMDb cast. All other actors are marked uncredited.

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Connections

Version of Riders of the Purple Sage (1941)

User Reviews

The Beauties of Nature

This is the old story, familiar to everyone who has seen more than three westerns. What is remarkable about this movie is the contrasts in beauty: superb scenes of nature fill the screen: towering mountains, cattle moving slowly over the sprawling prairies, high waterfalls filling the vistas shot outdoors. In contrast, the shots of 'civilization' are full of ugliness: broken palings of forts, ramshackle sheds that should fall down and disappear and cluttered interior shots. Even the heroine's home is made only half-decent by the plants that she has growing everywhere.

This contrast, between the beauty of nature and the ugliness of the works of man appears throughout the movie and makes the ending -- where Tom Mix pushes over a boulder that will simultaneously make it impossible for the bad men who are pursuing him, his heroine and Anne Shirley -- a child actor at this stage, appearing under the name of "Dawn O'Day" -- and seals them forever in a valley far from the works of man -- not only understandable, but inevitable. It's a silent movie and it works as a silent movie, where all you have are the images. Highly recommended, both as an introduction to Tom Mix and on its own merits.