Riders of the Purple Sage

By 1925, silent western star Tom Mix had been a headliner for a decade, first in short films and then, from 1918 onward, features. This is one of Tom's collaborations with his frequent director Lynn Reynolds and possibly their most famous film together. Mix was at the top of his career at this point, and with the advent of sound films would slide into b westerns. Reynolds would continue directing until 1929, when he shot himself.

This is an adaptation of a Zane Grey novel that has been turned to films several times over. The first one, by Frank Lloyd, has been lost to history making this the oldest surviving take. It is a classic story-line with a big time interval in the narrative. Woman named Millie (Beatrice Burnham) catches the unwanted attention of an evil judge (Warner Oland), who has Millie and her daughter Bess taken. Millie's husband dies swearing his vengeance, and the guy executing this final wish is Millie's brother Jim Lassiter (Mix), who spends years looking for the lost Bess, who has been separated from Millie.

The narrative is told neatly in an hour without a feeling that things got rushed. The film showcases Mix at the top of his game, and there was a fair amount of action. As was the case in most silent westerns, the character work is very thin. The villain is literally trying to kick a child. But if you con't come in expecting "The Searchers" level of depth and character study, this film should get the job done.

Contrary to the general rule, The Book Is Always Better Than The Film, most of Zane Grey's stories adapted well to the screen and often much better.

Gray was rather a Writer of the Purple Prose and too often his great stories were therefore hard to read.

But, boy, as action-packed movies? They moved!

Director Lynn Reynolds used his camera for some beautifully framed shots, and even moved his camera to add drama to, for example, the hero's entering a scene.

And hero? Tom Mix was unquestionably one in this, with his own ability and his reputation and with the aid of Reynolds and the camera.

One cutaway of Mix's character almost caressing his pistol, in the holster, subtly made a very unsubtle point.

Leading lady Mabel Ballin has only 28 credits here at IMDb but she showed a real talent in expressing herself.

The rest of the cast, from villain Warner Oland to the as-usual-uncredited Hank Bell, shine and make this story -- made and re-made many times -- the classic that it is.

For some strange reason, VerdeValleyTV, who uploaded this at YouTube, continued the upload instead of stopping it at the end so the run time shows double the fact. WHY this kind of nonsense is so common at YouTube is a mystery to me. Maybe there is a better version. But "Riders of the Purple Sage" starring Tom Mix is a definite good watch, and I highly recommend it.

THE RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE (Fox, 1925), directed by Lynn Reynolds, stars Tom Mix, popular cowboy hero of the silent screen, in the second of four filmed adaptations based on Zane Grey's classic western novel, and the best known of them all, mainly due to its interesting story, good scenery, a touch of comedy, plenty of action and fine performances provided by its leading actors, especially Tom Mix as a fearful cowboy who is quick on the trigger.

Opening with the inter-titles reading: "On the far reaches of the great southwest in the late eighties, Frank Erne and his wife are making a brave fight to establish their little homestead," the story gets underway with Millye Erne (Beatrice Burnham) mother to her infant daughter, Bessie (Sissyl Johnson) and husband, Frank (Arthur Morrison) who is heavily in debt, tired of her struggling existence. She is loved by Lew Walters (Warner Oland), a local attorney, who, after being forced to leave town, decides to take Millye with him. When she refuses, he takes her by force, having his men (Fred Kohler, Jim Ritzson and Charles Newton) abducting her child and shooting Frank. Before he dies, Frank tells the situation to Jim Carson (Tom Mix), a Texas Ranger and Millye's brother, leading him to carry on a new mission, dedicating his life in locating his sister and niece as well as tracking down Walters. Walters marries Millye after learning of Frank's death. Feeling the child to be a nuisance and wanting Millye all to herself, although she really doesn't love him, Walters, now under the assumed surname of Pyer, hires Oldring (Wilfred Lucas), leader of the Riders of the Purple Sage, to take the child away. At a loss for her Bessie, Millye searches aimlessly in the wilderness for her, and dies in the process. During his years of searching, Carson, now going under the name of Jim Lassiter, learns of his sister's fate through Jane Witherstein (Mabel Ballin), who had found and befriended her prior to her death. Because Jane knows the whole story but at present refuses to tell how much she knows, Carson, accepts the job as foreman on her ranch, and bonds with Fay Larkin (Dawn O'Day, later to become teen actress Anne Shirley in the 1930s), an orphaned child Jane has adopted. As Jim saves Jane from the clutches of Richard Tull (Charles Lamorne), a ruthless cattleman, Bern Venters (Harold Goodwin), a young cowboy, encounters a masked member of the Riders of the Purple Sage, a young girl (Marian Nixon) who might possibly be Jim's missing niece.

A simple story and an above average western motion picture, RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE which runs under an hour, moves swiftly across the screen. Aside from an earlier 1918 version with William Farnum, and its 1931 and 1941 remakes, starring George O'Brien and later George Montgomery, a sequel, THE RAINBOW TRAIL (Fox, 1925) also featuring Tom Mix, immediately followed.

Fans of the "Charlie Chan" movie series from the 1930s will take pleasure in watching Warner Oland some years before playing the Oriental sleuth taking part as a nasty villain here. Aside from assuming two identities to his sole character in RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, take notice that Oland's appearance changes three times during the coarse of the story. He is introduced sporting dark hair and mustache. In the middle portion of the story, he appears a trifle older minus the mustache, and for the near conclusion, which is set some 15 years or so later, now acting as judge in a town of Cottonwood, his hair has changed to white sporting once again a mustache. Regardless of how he appears, this is the man the Texas Ranger, as played by Mix, wants to get.

Of the handful of Tom Mix westerns released during the silent era, many have survived but few have been revived. THE RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE did become one of the few to be presented on television, notably on public television 13-week series of THE SILENT YEARS (1975), as hosted by Lillian Gish, accompanied by an excellent piano score by William Perry from the Paul Killiam Collection. In later years, it was distributed on video cassette in 1996 by Critic's Choice video and sometime later on DVD. Rarely shown on television these days, it can be found on one of the numerous cable stations, The Westerns Channel, showing the movie with the Perry piano score. Fine viewing for silent western fans and a fine introduction to movie cowboy Tom Mix. (***)

Based on the novel by Zane Grey, the film stars Tom Mix as the gunslinger Lassiter who hunts down the men responsible for kidnapping his sister and niece years ago. His trek takes him to a ranch owned by Jane Withersteen (Mabel Ballin) who is having her own problems with cattle rustlers. The two plots eventually meet up, and the movie features a haunting finale, remaining true to the novel.

Mix is somewhat bland as the hero, and his outfit is a bit too "ornate." However, he does have a cute, playful scene with an orphan girl played by Dawn O'Day (who later changed her name to Anne Shirley). Warner Oland, as the main villain, is suitably hiss-worthy. IMDb lists Gary Cooper in a bit, but I couldn't find him. Possibly the real star of the film is the beautiful scenery.

During the climax, Mix, with O'Day hanging onto him, and Ballin had to climb up a granite wall. Although wires held them in place, Mix admitted he was not comfortable. "I felt ill at ease because of that little shaver on my back. I kept talking all the time we were climbing to divert attention but let me tell you I watched my step."

In the novel, the kidnappers and some of the other "bad guys" are Mormons. However, there is no mention of any religious organization in this film. The 1918 version, with William Farnum, is presumed lost, although some stills exist, so this is the earliest surviving filmed version. The 1931 version, with George O'Brien, is available on youtube. There is also a 1940s version with George Montgomery.

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.