Riders of the Purple Sage (1925)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Lynn Reynolds

Writers:

Zane Grey (novel)
Edfrid A. Bingham (scenario)

Release Date:

15 March 1925 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

A Texas Ranger searches for his kidnapped sister.

Plot Keywords:

Judge | Child | False Accusation | Stampede | Saloon

Cast

Tom Mix	...	Jim Carson / Jim Lassiter
Beatrice Burnham	...	Milly Erne
Seessel Anne Johnson	...	Bess Erne as a Child (as Seesel Anne Johnson)
Arthur Morrison	...	Frank Erne
Warner Oland	...	Lew Walters / Judge Dyer
Wilfred Lucas	...	Oldring
Mabel Ballin	...	Jane Withersteen
Charles Le Moyne	...	Richard Tull (as Charles LeMoyne)
Harold Goodwin	...	Bern Venters

Runtime:

56 min (1973 alternate version)

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Fox Film Corporation

Movie Connections:

Featured in Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs (2000) (TV)

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.