The Heart of Texas Ryan

For a western from 1917, "The Heart of Texas Ryan" is very good. Too bad, then, that the movie ends horribly...

The film begins with a young lady, Texas Ryan, coming home to her ranch after getting an eastern education. Soon she meets a guy nicknamed 'Single-Shot' (Tom Mix) and he is smitten with her--so much so that he decides to mend his rough and tumble ways (much of the first half of the film consists of him getting into fights and such). However, an evil Mexican bandit and his gang are up to no good and eventually they kidnap Single-Shot and vow to execute him. What happens next is VERY anti-climactic and the film ends on a sour note.

Overall, it's a decent western marred by a bad ending. Too bad, as the stunts were fairly good and the film a decent bit of entertainment up until then. For lovers of silent films and B-westerns, it's well worth seeing--especially as Mix is one of the huge names in early westerns and he's become all but forgotten today.

Tom Mix western movies that I have were contemporary for their time. This movie was made in 1917 and the setting is 1917. I particularly liked the low key humor. Maybe they had to; no laugh track. This movie was no ground breaker, but except for Buck Jones, I don't know any other cowboy who could come close to Tom Mix as the personification of the upright western good guy. I also kind of liked the way the purty girl saved Tom instead of the other way around.