The Miracle Rider
Encyclopedia
The Miracle Rider is a 1935
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...

 Mascot movie serial directed by B. Reeves Eason
B. Reeves Eason
B. Reeves Eason was an American film director, actor and screenwriter. His directorial output was limited mainly to low-budget westerns and action pictures, but it was as a second-unit director and action specialist that he was best known...

 and Armand Schaefer
Armand Schaefer
Armand Schaefer was a Canadian film producer and director. He produced over 100 films between 1932 and 1953. He also directed 24 films between 1931 and 1946...

. The serial stars Tom Mix
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...

.

Plot outline

Zaroff (Charles Middleton), a rancher and oil company owner, wants to drive the Ravenhead Indians off their reservation so that he can mine the rare element X-94, a super explosive, found there and sell it to the highest bidder. Texas Ranger Tom Morgan tries to stop him and save the tribe.

Cast

  • Tom Mix
    Tom Mix
    Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...

     as Tom Morgan, Texas Ranger
  • Joan Gale as Ruth
  • Charles Middleton
    Charles B. Middleton
    Charles B. Middleton was an American stage and film actor. During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, Charles Middleton appeared in nearly two hundred films as well as numerous plays...

     as Zaroff, a rancher and oil company owner
  • Robert Frazer
    Robert Frazer
    rightRobert W. Frazer born Robert William Browne on 29 June 1891 in Worcester, Massachusetts, US, was an American actor who appeared in some 224 shorts and films from the 1910s until his death on 17 August 1944 in Los Angeles, California, US, due to leukemia...

     as Chief Black Wing
  • Niles Welch
    Niles Welch
    Niles Welch, also known as Niles Welsh, was an American performer on Broadway, and a leading man in a number of silent and early talking motion pictures from the early 1910s through the 1930s....

     as Metzger
  • Jason Robards Sr. as Carlton (Jason Robards
    Jason Robards
    Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was an American actor on stage, and in film and television, and a winner of the Tony Award , two Academy Awards and the Emmy Award...

    )
  • Bob Kortman
    Bob Kortman
    Bob Kortman was an American film actor mostly associated with westerns, though he also appeared in a number of Laurel and Hardy comedies...

     as Longboat
  • Edward Earle
    Edward Earle
    Edward Earle was a Canadian film actor. He appeared in almost 400 films between 1914 and 1956.He was born in Toronto and died in Los Angeles, California, aged 90.-Selected filmography:* The Purple Dress...

     as Christopher Adams, Indian Agent
  • Edward Hearn
    Edward Hearn
    Edward Hearn was an American actor. He appeared in 361 films between 1915 and 1955.He was born in Dayton, Washington and died in Los Angeles County, California.-Selected filmography:* Daredevil Jack...

     as Emil Janss
  • Tom London
    Tom London
    Tom London was an American actor who, according to "The Guinness Book of Movie Records," is credited with appearing in the most movies in the history of Hollywood...

     as Sewell, one of Zaroff's henchmen
  • Edmund Cobb
    Edmund Cobb
    Edmund Fessenden Cobb was an American actor. He appeared in 623 films between 1912 and 1966.He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles from a heart attack...

     as Vining, one of Zaroff's henchmen
  • Ernie Adams
    Ernie Adams (actor)
    Ernie Adams was an American film actor. He appeared in over 400 films between 1919 and 1948.He was born in San Francisco, California and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:...

     as John Stelter
  • Max Wagner
    Max Wagner
    Max Wagner was a Mexican-born American film actor who specialized in playing small parts such as thugs, gangsters, sailors, henchmen, bodyguards, cab drivers and moving men, appearing in over 300 films in his career, most without receiving screen credit...

     as Morley, one of Zaroff's henchmen
  • Charles King as Hatton, one of Zaroff's henchmen
  • George Chesebro
    George Chesebro
    George Chesebro was an American film actor. He appeared in over 400 films between 1915 and 1954, beginning in two reelers starring Texas Guinan.He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and died in Los Angeles, California....

     as Crossman, Janss Hand

Production

This was Tom Mix's last film and his only sound serial. Tom Mix was still an A-list star in 1935, along side Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr and Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

. He was paid $40,000 for four weeks work on The Miracle Rider, which he used as urgent funding to support his circus.

The serial combined the large cast and interlocking plots of a silent serial with the science fiction and cliffhangers of the sound era.

Stunts

Tom Mix, whose voice was strained and nasal due to a repeatedly broken nose and a bullet through his throat, did a lot of his own stunts, although some were doubled by Cliff Lyons
Cliff Lyons (actor)
Clifford William Lyons was an American motion picture stuntman, second-unit director, and actor, primarily of Westerns, particularly the films of John Ford and John Wayne.Lyons, the son of Garrett Thomas Lyons and Wilhamena Johnson Lyons, was raised on a South Dakota farm,...

.

Chapter titles

  1. The Vanishing Indian
  2. The Firebird Strikes
  3. The Flying Knife
  4. A Race with Death
  5. Double Barreled Doom
  6. Thundering Hoofs [sic
    Sic
    Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...

    ]
  7. The Dragnet
  8. Guerilla Warfare
  9. The Silver Road
  10. Signal Fires
  11. A Traitor Dies
  12. Danger Rides with Death
  13. Secret of X-94
  14. Between Two Fires
  15. Justice Rides the Plains

Source:

This was Mascot's only 15-chapter serial.

"Zaroff" is obviously inspired by Basil Zaharoff a notorious early twentieth century arms merchant, often citedas one of the so-called "merchants of death", who supposedly helped bring on World War I.

External links

The Miracle Rider is a 1935
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...

 Mascot movie serial directed by B. Reeves Eason
B. Reeves Eason
B. Reeves Eason was an American film director, actor and screenwriter. His directorial output was limited mainly to low-budget westerns and action pictures, but it was as a second-unit director and action specialist that he was best known...

 and Armand Schaefer
Armand Schaefer
Armand Schaefer was a Canadian film producer and director. He produced over 100 films between 1932 and 1953. He also directed 24 films between 1931 and 1946...

. The serial stars Tom Mix
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...

.

Plot outline

Zaroff (Charles Middleton), a rancher and oil company owner, wants to drive the Ravenhead Indians off their reservation so that he can mine the rare element X-94, a super explosive, found there and sell it to the highest bidder. Texas Ranger Tom Morgan tries to stop him and save the tribe.

Cast

  • Tom Mix
    Tom Mix
    Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...

     as Tom Morgan, Texas Ranger
  • Joan Gale as Ruth
  • Charles Middleton
    Charles B. Middleton
    Charles B. Middleton was an American stage and film actor. During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, Charles Middleton appeared in nearly two hundred films as well as numerous plays...

     as Zaroff, a rancher and oil company owner
  • Robert Frazer
    Robert Frazer
    rightRobert W. Frazer born Robert William Browne on 29 June 1891 in Worcester, Massachusetts, US, was an American actor who appeared in some 224 shorts and films from the 1910s until his death on 17 August 1944 in Los Angeles, California, US, due to leukemia...

     as Chief Black Wing
  • Niles Welch
    Niles Welch
    Niles Welch, also known as Niles Welsh, was an American performer on Broadway, and a leading man in a number of silent and early talking motion pictures from the early 1910s through the 1930s....

     as Metzger
  • Jason Robards Sr. as Carlton (Jason Robards
    Jason Robards
    Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was an American actor on stage, and in film and television, and a winner of the Tony Award , two Academy Awards and the Emmy Award...

    )
  • Bob Kortman
    Bob Kortman
    Bob Kortman was an American film actor mostly associated with westerns, though he also appeared in a number of Laurel and Hardy comedies...

     as Longboat
  • Edward Earle
    Edward Earle
    Edward Earle was a Canadian film actor. He appeared in almost 400 films between 1914 and 1956.He was born in Toronto and died in Los Angeles, California, aged 90.-Selected filmography:* The Purple Dress...

     as Christopher Adams, Indian Agent
  • Edward Hearn
    Edward Hearn
    Edward Hearn was an American actor. He appeared in 361 films between 1915 and 1955.He was born in Dayton, Washington and died in Los Angeles County, California.-Selected filmography:* Daredevil Jack...

     as Emil Janss
  • Tom London
    Tom London
    Tom London was an American actor who, according to "The Guinness Book of Movie Records," is credited with appearing in the most movies in the history of Hollywood...

     as Sewell, one of Zaroff's henchmen
  • Edmund Cobb
    Edmund Cobb
    Edmund Fessenden Cobb was an American actor. He appeared in 623 films between 1912 and 1966.He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles from a heart attack...

     as Vining, one of Zaroff's henchmen
  • Ernie Adams
    Ernie Adams (actor)
    Ernie Adams was an American film actor. He appeared in over 400 films between 1919 and 1948.He was born in San Francisco, California and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:...

     as John Stelter
  • Max Wagner
    Max Wagner
    Max Wagner was a Mexican-born American film actor who specialized in playing small parts such as thugs, gangsters, sailors, henchmen, bodyguards, cab drivers and moving men, appearing in over 300 films in his career, most without receiving screen credit...

     as Morley, one of Zaroff's henchmen
  • Charles King as Hatton, one of Zaroff's henchmen
  • George Chesebro
    George Chesebro
    George Chesebro was an American film actor. He appeared in over 400 films between 1915 and 1954, beginning in two reelers starring Texas Guinan.He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and died in Los Angeles, California....

     as Crossman, Janss Hand

Production

This was Tom Mix's last film and his only sound serial. Tom Mix was still an A-list star in 1935, along side Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr and Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

. He was paid $40,000 for four weeks work on The Miracle Rider, which he used as urgent funding to support his circus.

The serial combined the large cast and interlocking plots of a silent serial with the science fiction and cliffhangers of the sound era.

Stunts

Tom Mix, whose voice was strained and nasal due to a repeatedly broken nose and a bullet through his throat, did a lot of his own stunts, although some were doubled by Cliff Lyons
Cliff Lyons (actor)
Clifford William Lyons was an American motion picture stuntman, second-unit director, and actor, primarily of Westerns, particularly the films of John Ford and John Wayne.Lyons, the son of Garrett Thomas Lyons and Wilhamena Johnson Lyons, was raised on a South Dakota farm,...

.

Chapter titles

  1. The Vanishing Indian
  2. The Firebird Strikes
  3. The Flying Knife
  4. A Race with Death
  5. Double Barreled Doom
  6. Thundering Hoofs [sic
    Sic
    Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...

    ]
  7. The Dragnet
  8. Guerilla Warfare
  9. The Silver Road
  10. Signal Fires
  11. A Traitor Dies
  12. Danger Rides with Death
  13. Secret of X-94
  14. Between Two Fires
  15. Justice Rides the Plains

Source:

This was Mascot's only 15-chapter serial.

"Zaroff" is obviously inspired by Basil Zaharoff a notorious early twentieth century arms merchant, often citedas one of the so-called "merchants of death", who supposedly helped bring on World War I.

External links

The Miracle Rider is a 1935
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...

 Mascot movie serial directed by B. Reeves Eason
B. Reeves Eason
B. Reeves Eason was an American film director, actor and screenwriter. His directorial output was limited mainly to low-budget westerns and action pictures, but it was as a second-unit director and action specialist that he was best known...

 and Armand Schaefer
Armand Schaefer
Armand Schaefer was a Canadian film producer and director. He produced over 100 films between 1932 and 1953. He also directed 24 films between 1931 and 1946...

. The serial stars Tom Mix
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...

.

Plot outline

Zaroff (Charles Middleton), a rancher and oil company owner, wants to drive the Ravenhead Indians off their reservation so that he can mine the rare element X-94, a super explosive, found there and sell it to the highest bidder. Texas Ranger Tom Morgan tries to stop him and save the tribe.

Cast

  • Tom Mix
    Tom Mix
    Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...

     as Tom Morgan, Texas Ranger
  • Joan Gale as Ruth
  • Charles Middleton
    Charles B. Middleton
    Charles B. Middleton was an American stage and film actor. During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, Charles Middleton appeared in nearly two hundred films as well as numerous plays...

     as Zaroff, a rancher and oil company owner
  • Robert Frazer
    Robert Frazer
    rightRobert W. Frazer born Robert William Browne on 29 June 1891 in Worcester, Massachusetts, US, was an American actor who appeared in some 224 shorts and films from the 1910s until his death on 17 August 1944 in Los Angeles, California, US, due to leukemia...

     as Chief Black Wing
  • Niles Welch
    Niles Welch
    Niles Welch, also known as Niles Welsh, was an American performer on Broadway, and a leading man in a number of silent and early talking motion pictures from the early 1910s through the 1930s....

     as Metzger
  • Jason Robards Sr. as Carlton (Jason Robards
    Jason Robards
    Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was an American actor on stage, and in film and television, and a winner of the Tony Award , two Academy Awards and the Emmy Award...

    )
  • Bob Kortman
    Bob Kortman
    Bob Kortman was an American film actor mostly associated with westerns, though he also appeared in a number of Laurel and Hardy comedies...

     as Longboat
  • Edward Earle
    Edward Earle
    Edward Earle was a Canadian film actor. He appeared in almost 400 films between 1914 and 1956.He was born in Toronto and died in Los Angeles, California, aged 90.-Selected filmography:* The Purple Dress...

     as Christopher Adams, Indian Agent
  • Edward Hearn
    Edward Hearn
    Edward Hearn was an American actor. He appeared in 361 films between 1915 and 1955.He was born in Dayton, Washington and died in Los Angeles County, California.-Selected filmography:* Daredevil Jack...

     as Emil Janss
  • Tom London
    Tom London
    Tom London was an American actor who, according to "The Guinness Book of Movie Records," is credited with appearing in the most movies in the history of Hollywood...

     as Sewell, one of Zaroff's henchmen
  • Edmund Cobb
    Edmund Cobb
    Edmund Fessenden Cobb was an American actor. He appeared in 623 films between 1912 and 1966.He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles from a heart attack...

     as Vining, one of Zaroff's henchmen
  • Ernie Adams
    Ernie Adams (actor)
    Ernie Adams was an American film actor. He appeared in over 400 films between 1919 and 1948.He was born in San Francisco, California and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:...

     as John Stelter
  • Max Wagner
    Max Wagner
    Max Wagner was a Mexican-born American film actor who specialized in playing small parts such as thugs, gangsters, sailors, henchmen, bodyguards, cab drivers and moving men, appearing in over 300 films in his career, most without receiving screen credit...

     as Morley, one of Zaroff's henchmen
  • Charles King as Hatton, one of Zaroff's henchmen
  • George Chesebro
    George Chesebro
    George Chesebro was an American film actor. He appeared in over 400 films between 1915 and 1954, beginning in two reelers starring Texas Guinan.He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and died in Los Angeles, California....

     as Crossman, Janss Hand

Production

This was Tom Mix's last film and his only sound serial. Tom Mix was still an A-list star in 1935, along side Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr and Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

. He was paid $40,000 for four weeks work on The Miracle Rider, which he used as urgent funding to support his circus.

The serial combined the large cast and interlocking plots of a silent serial with the science fiction and cliffhangers of the sound era.

Stunts

Tom Mix, whose voice was strained and nasal due to a repeatedly broken nose and a bullet through his throat, did a lot of his own stunts, although some were doubled by Cliff Lyons
Cliff Lyons (actor)
Clifford William Lyons was an American motion picture stuntman, second-unit director, and actor, primarily of Westerns, particularly the films of John Ford and John Wayne.Lyons, the son of Garrett Thomas Lyons and Wilhamena Johnson Lyons, was raised on a South Dakota farm,...

.

Chapter titles

  1. The Vanishing Indian
  2. The Firebird Strikes
  3. The Flying Knife
  4. A Race with Death
  5. Double Barreled Doom
  6. Thundering Hoofs [sic
    Sic
    Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...

    ]
  7. The Dragnet
  8. Guerilla Warfare
  9. The Silver Road
  10. Signal Fires
  11. A Traitor Dies
  12. Danger Rides with Death
  13. Secret of X-94
  14. Between Two Fires
  15. Justice Rides the Plains

Source:

This was Mascot's only 15-chapter serial.

"Zaroff" is obviously inspired by Basil Zaharoff a notorious early twentieth century arms merchant, often citedas one of the so-called "merchants of death", who supposedly helped bring on World War I.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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