The Miracle Rider | |
---|---|
Directed by | B. Reeves Eason Armand Schaefer |
Written by | Barney A. Sarecky Wellyn Totman |
Produced by | Nat Levine Barney A. Sarecky |
Starring | Tom Mix Joan Gale Charles Middleton |
Cinematography | Ernest Miller William Nobles |
Edited by | Richard Fantl |
Music by | Nem Herkan |
Production company | Mascot Pictures |
Distributed by | Mascot Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 15 chapters (306 minutes) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Miracle Rider is a 1935 American Western film serial directed by B. Reeves Eason and Armand Schaefer for Mascot. It stars silent movie cowboy star Tom Mix in his last major film role. [1]
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.
This was Tom Mix's last film and his only sound serial. [2] Tom Mix was still an A-list star in 1935, alongside Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and Mary Pickford. [2] He was paid $40,000 for four weeks work on The Miracle Rider, which he used as urgent funding to support his circus. [2]
The serial combined the large cast and interlocking plots of a silent serial with the science fiction and cliffhangers of the sound era. [2] Filming of the outdoor action sequences took place primarily at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The movie ranch, which had been in use as a filming location since the early silent movie era, was known for its rugged landscape and giant sandstone boulders. One of those boulders became known as Tom Mix Rock in later years, after it was discovered that bootholes had been carved in the rock to help the actor shoot a scene atop the rock for The Miracle Rider.
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. [2]
Source: [3]
This was Mascot's only 15-chapter serial.
"Zaroff" is obviously inspired by Basil Zaharoff, a notorious early twentieth-century arms merchant, often cited as one of the so-called "merchants of death", who supposedly helped bring on World War I.
Thomas Edwin Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western films between 1909 and 1935. He appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent films. He was Hollywood's first Western star and helped define the genre as it emerged in the early days of the cinema.
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Charles Brown Middleton was an American stage and film actor. During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, he appeared in nearly 200 films as well as numerous plays. Sometimes credited as Charles B. Middleton, he is perhaps best remembered for his role as the villainous emperor Ming the Merciless in the three Flash Gordon serials made between 1936 and 1940.
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Riders of the Purple Sage is a 1925 American silent Western film directed by Lynn Reynolds and starring Tom Mix, Mabel Ballin, and Warner Oland. Based on the 1912 novel Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey, the film is about a former Texas Ranger who pursues a corrupt lawyer who abducted his married sister and niece. His search leads him to a remote Arizona ranch and the love of a good woman.
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