Pelas Alturas

Tom Mix is Grant Newbury, a deputy government agent intent on stopping an illegal ring that smuggles Chinese immigrants across the Arizona border to the Grand Canyon. His boss tells him his latest mission is to stop "200 Chop-Suey eating Chinamen" from sneaking into the USA. This western film is contemporary, not one that portrays the nineteenth century. So there are automobiles and an airplane, and the telephone has long been established. There is a brief scene of a western town that has traded in its horses for automobiles; at first glance it looks like a postcard town of the previous century. This picture has great stunts, especially one of Tom Mix (or his double) dangling from an airplane high above the Canyon. Tom also climbs the walls of the Canyon, and later leaps an eleven foot gap from one side of a cliff to another. Near the end of the movie Mix is chasing a desperado on horseback when his white horse takes a nasty tumble. Tom and his steed topple hard. Quickly brushing off a fall that could have had serious results, Tom merely remounts and continues the chase. The take was used in the film, and there was no double. That was Tom Mix, the man, all the way. By the way, Eva Novak is appropriate as the appealing love interest.

The picture is advertised as the first movie to depict aerial views of the Grand Canyon. And it is the National Park that is the main story here, along with the stunts. Although the film shows its age and is a bit faded, it can be viewed OK. In 1998 it was added to the National Film Registry.

Pleasant short feature -- it times out a bit under fifty minutes -- about Tom Mix, a government agent intent on stopping unlawful Chinese immigrants coming into the US via the Grand Canyon. This feature was shot in the Grand Canyon and so has some very nice scenery. Tom smiles a lot and the villains are appropriately vicious. While not as good as his best, the surviving prints are in excellent shape.

I saw this late at night on TCM. !!! I spent years hiking down in the Grand Canyon, and this is the real thing. The plot is not important. The footage of the Canyon is not made of Southern California location shots, but spectacular film of various places on the South Rim, and in the side canyons below. I recognize many stretches of the Bright Angel Trail, though how they got a horse to gallop up it, I have no idea. The NPS pack mules slog along slowly, and most humans, myself included, manage only two or three miles and hour, up hill. Watch this movie, if only to see the Grand Canyon as it was before the "improvements" of the 21st century!

This is a rousing and impressive Tom Mix adventure film. It is not a 'cowboy movie' because it is set in contemporary times (i.e., 1922, when it was made). True, Tom Mix wears his trademark cowboy hat and packs a six-shooter, but it is in his capacity as Chief of Border Control on the Mexican border with Arizona and Texas. He is trying to prevent illegal immigration into the United States. Sound familiar? What could be more topical today? He discovers a people trafficking gang and their hideout, which is at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Although the Alpha Home DVD which I saw was of very poor visual quality, having been made from a tired print, this film must have been truly spectacular on a big cinema screen in a crisp print at the time of its release. I wonder if a negative survives, as it would be well worth making a high-quality digitized version of this film so that everything can be seen as it was meant to be seen. For the scenery is incredible, and the antics and stunts are sensational. Tom Mix seems to have done a lot of his own stunt work. He scrambles up and down the cliff faces of the Grand Canyon like a tireless mountain goat. He seems to have been as physically fit as a Navy Seal. The first aerial shots of the Grand Canyon on film are to be found in this movie, and Tom Mix suspended on a rope from a wobbly biplane as he dangles and then drops into the swirling Colorado River is really something to behold. Tom Mix is also a sensational rider, who must have had rodeo experience. It is well known that he had once been a real cowboy. There is a wonderful scene where he lassos some bad guys from his horse as they stand next to an old tree stump. He then rides round and round them in a circle and winds the rope around them tight against the tree stump, leaving them helpless prisoners while he deals with the other bad guys. I would have liked to see close-ups of his lassoing and rope tricks, for he seems to have been almost as talented at it as Will Rogers. There is a gal played by Eva Novak whom he falls for. She appeared with him in no less than ten films, so that's a lot of falling in love. If only we could see a pristine print of this film, to appreciate the beauty of the scenery, which is exploited to the full. And for those who like action and don't want to just gaze at the canyon, the film is stuffed with it. The star is, after all, Tom Mix, and we know what that means: he isn't just straight up, he's mixed three parts pure Tom, two parts actions, one part suspense, and a dash of romance, shaken hard on horseback, and served with salt round the edge of the saddle.

I have heard the legends around Tom Mix for decades. This is the first of his features that I've seen. Some legends of the past don't hold up a century later. That's not true with Mr. Mix. He was King of the Cowboys then. He's clearly King of the Cowboys now.

Sky High is a great showcase for his talents. He ropes, rides, lassos and leaps from planes. He was never the troubled antihero struggling between right and wrong. He was always the model of unambiguous virtue.

I gave this picture seven stars. It probably deserved eight. I felt compelled to reduce its score because of the racism against Chinese people displayed in the story. It was a dark thumbprint on an otherwise fun and fast paced film.