“Trail of the Horse Thieves” is the fifth installment of the Tom Tyler lost silent film reconstruction series and now available for reading. This exciting story involves a remote valley of ranchers out west, a loan shark, and quicksand.
Please read the Terms of Use before reading the actual story.
Most importantly, enjoy my translation, and hopefully this will be an incentive to rediscover “Trail of the Horse Thieves”.
Click here to read my translation!
"The Outlaws of Cascade Falls" as a story is modeled after a standard Tom Tyler western plot: a discovered safe hidden in the woods by the Cascade Trail in the Adirondacks, a pet pal named Dax, a cat, and of course horses for the group of friends to ride along the Cascade Trail. They come up against some winged outlaws, along with other exciting mini-adventures along the way. There is even a chapter titled “What Would Tom Tyler Do?” when the group of friends come up against a sticky situation. The book is engaging enough for a young reader or adult who is interested in the story, since there are very few works of fiction which mention Tom Tyler in the story. At the end of the book there is a small section dedicated to exactly what type of birds the winged outlaws were, one of them being a raven, along with a brief description and photo of the Adirondack waterfalls, plus a section devoted to Tom Tyler himself, including photos of him along with one of the cover of “Tom Tyler Tales: The Adirondack Cowboy” from 2003, which commemorated the birth of Tom as Vincent Markowski back in Port Henry, New York in 1903.
Read "The Outlaws of Cascade Falls" here:
archive.org/details/outlawsofcascade0000vanr
Tom Tyler’s silent films made for FBO certainly made an impression upon fans around the world early on. Spain dedicated many forms of kiosk literature in the form of pulp fiction and film booklets on these silent films. Tom, along with Frankie Darro, their horses, and dog named Napoleon, were heavily marketed around the world along with many other silent films produced by FBO. In the United Kingdom, Tom Tyler had plenty of fans of that side of the Atlantic, enough to inspire at least one of them by the name of Hugh Loudon to include his silent films in the book “My Hollywood”. Written and published in 1991 by The Self Publishing Association Ltd. in Upton-upon-Servern in Worcestershire, Hugh cites Tom Tyler’s silent films as being an early influence upon his interest in American films.
One of Hugh's favorite cinemas where he attended the matinee was the Cecil located in Treforest, a village in Pontypridd, southern Wales. According to his memoir, one thing that genuinely fascinated him about Tom Tyler was the way the star mounted his horse, often while the horse started galloping. This is commonly known as the “flying mount”, which requires the rider to have a firm grasp on the horn of the saddle while aiming to land in the saddle without falling off onto the other side. Hugh continues to describe watching Tom’s silent films in the first chapter of his memoir, which took place between 1929 and 1931, a year or two after the film’s initial release in the United States, which was not unusual in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world at the time. The fact that Hugh was able to fondly remember Tom Tyler’s silent films in 1991 is impressive, a precious memory now faded with a generation no longer with us on earth.
Finally, Hugh devotes chapter eight of his memoir to westerns, where he mentions Tom again in the critically acclaimed “Stagecoach” from 1939. The words which describe Tom as one of the Plummer Boys aching to take on the Ringo Kid, played by John Wayne, are written with relish. Hugh even concludes the scene with how Tom walks into the saloon, his long, drawn-out walk, before collapsing dead beside the bar.
Engagingly written, it is easy to see how "My Hollywood" was written by a teacher who eventually went on to become the Director of Education in the historically rich county of Gwent in southeast Wales. Now out of print, the book can be read through Internet Archive.
Coming up in 2026, our fifth installment of the lost Tom Tyler silent film reconstruction series, "Trail of the Horse Thieves" from 1929 with Bee Amann has been selected. As usual, the basis for this reconstruction will be the film's derivative published by Biblioteca Films. Existing copies of stills, promotional materials, and movie cards will be included in this project.
Once "Trail of the Horse Thieves" is translated, it will be posted here on the Aventuras de Tom Tyler Blog plus social media pages.
Once the singalong stopped, director Robert DeLacy called for the actors to take their positions. Almost as if the diversion never took place, Tom assumed his physical stance, arms held above his head, while Bill Nestell stood directly in front of him, his gun pointed at Tom, ready to take action. No doubt the director and the rest of the crew were amused at the friendly exchange between the two actors off-camera then suddenly falling into line as the script demands. Such incidents on the silent film set with Tom Tyler show that while he was a serious actor, he never took himself too seriously while waiting in between those camera takes.
Movie recommendations have long been a mainstay in film magazines and newspapers, but in the mid-to late 1920’s, the publication The Youth’s Companion contained a regular column entitled “The Best Motion Pictures”. Published from 1827 to 1929 in Boston, Massachusetts, The Youth’s Companion contained imaginative stories and articles along with illustrations targeted to children. The earliest issues also contained ads located near the back of the magazine, just as many periodicals and magazines did back in the mid-twentieth century.
“The Best Motion Pictures” mentioned a handful of popular youth-oriented silent films which readers might find interesting enough to view at their local movie house. Not surprisingly, there are at least two issues of The Youth’s Companion which mention Tom Tyler’s silent film “The Cowboy Cop” (1926), which also stars Jean Arthur and Frankie Darro. The issues are dated September 30, 1926, with the illustration of a deer on the cover, the second issue, dated October 14, 1926, which has a bison on the cover.
Following are the columns as they appear listing “The Cowboy Cop”:
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| The Youth's Companion, September 30, 1926 |
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| The Youth's Companion, October 14, 1926 |
Phantom of the Range (1928)
The Texas Tornado (1928)
Terror Mountain (1928)
The Avenging Rider (1928) (fragment)
A note on “The Texas Tornado”: a complete version is stored at BFI.
If any readers of this blog own a complete print of “The Avenging Rider” or any other lost silent films/Monogram Pictures Tom Tyler has appeared in, please contact Aventuras de Tom Tyler – we would love to speak with you! The time has come for these silent films to be restored.
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| The Cowboy Cop |
At one point, a number of these silent film booklets were compiled and bound into a book, as with the one titled Cuentos del Cine. Interestingly enough, not all of the film books are under the Cuentos Cinematograficos title: some of the bound booklets were published under Biblioteca Infantil Cinematografica. Measuring 4 ¾” x 6 ¾” in size, the book has a brown fabric cover with Cuentos del Cine on the binding. Covers from the individual film booklets are left intact. Each cover for Cuentos Cinematograficos bears an illustration from a silent film scene in the colors red, brown, gray, black and white, with a mast across the top of each cover containing an illustration of Tom and his young pal Frankie Darro, with the words Tom Tyler, Chispita (a reference to Frankie), Vivales (a reference to Franki’s pet dog Napoleon). The three Tom Tyler silent films which appear under Cuentos Cinematograficos are: “La Fortuna del Bandido/The Masquerade Bandit”, “El Cowboy Policia/The Cowboy Cop”, and “Valor Salvaje/Cyclone of the Range”. It is worth noting that “El Cowboy Policia” was the first publication for Cuentos Cinematograficos, suggesting that Tom Tyler’s popularity would help get the new brand off the ground.
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| The Masquerade Bandit |
Individually sold during their circulation time, these film booklets are derivatives from silent films starring the famous French actor Georges Biscot, Tom Mix, Tom Tyler, Jackie Coogan, Rin Tin Tin, Billy Sullivan, and many others. Like other issues of Cuentos Cinematograficos, instead of film stills being reproduced in the film booklets, sketches of the stills are used to illustrate the story.
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| Cyclone of the Range |
A special edition booklet, “Una Aventura de Tom Tyler” is included, which appears to be a work of fiction, which of course includes Tom’s pal Frankie Darro from his silent film days. Unlike the regular covers designed for Cuentos Cinematograficos, this one shows a full-length shot of Tom Tyler on the cover, with some decoration in the publication name and story title. The singular noteworthy full-page sketch which is added to the story depicts Tom seated and being tied up by a group of men wearing white sheets over their heads with two holes cut out for the eyes, ghost-style. Such a story must have been an exciting treat for young fans of Tom Tyler, and like so many other ultra-rare Tom Tyler silent film collectibles, are sought after by serious collectors.
Among the collectible movie card sets manufactured within the last fifty years is Riders of the Silver Screen. Manufactured by Smokey Mountain Knife Works in Sevierville, Tennessee in 1993, each card measures 2 1/2” x 3 ½” in size, the standard baseball card size. A parade of western stars receives several cards dedicated to their most noteworthy films in the Riders of the Silver Screen Series 1 set, The front of each card contains a scene from a popular film, while the back of each card contains an interesting fact or two about the western star, including birth and death dates, place of birth, real name, and blurb about the star’s film career. Each card has a red border with a second border in the form of a film reel with the film itself forming a frame around a movie poster of some type: a film still, lobby card, half-sheet, or one sheet. While a full color palette is used, the Riders of the Silver Screen Series 1 leans to the natural colors of the southwest.
Series 1 of Riders of the Silver Screen contains six movie cards that Tom Tyler appears on and are numbered consecutively. The card numbers and film scenes are as follows:
277 – The Phantom of the West
278 – The Texas Tornado
279 – Santa Fe Bound
280 – War of the Range
281 – Lost Ranch
282 – Gauchos of El Dorado
Smokey Mountain Knife Works has been in operation since 1978 and is best known for selling pocketknives and owning a major knife showplace. The company also manufactures knives decorated with western stars as part of their “Riders of the Silver Screen” series.
Other western stars who appear on Riders of the Silver Screen Series 1 include: Monte Hale, George O’Brien, Rex Allen, and Gene Autry.
When the camp was built in 1892 at 5,000 feet in the San Jacinto mountains, John and Mary Keen already had experience in the hospitality business, owning a hotel in Valle Vista, located in San Jacinto Valley of Riverside County, California. Convenient to many South Californians seeking relief from the hot summers, Keen Camp soon became an ideal spot for filmmakers in the 1920’s. The layout of the camp was appropriate enough for filmmaking, cast and crew members: small cabins were often rented, and primitive camping was also accessible. Mary Keen had one building reserved for the kitchen and dining room for campground guests.
In addition to “The Desert Pirate”, the following silent films were also filmed in part at Keen Camp: "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" (1920) with Jack Pickford, and "The Ghost City" (1923), a Universal serial starring Margaret Morris and Pete Morrison.
Keen Camp no longer exists, its original buildings are long gone, although there is a Keen Camp Summit located to the southeast of the original camp, on the Pines-to-Palms Highway above Garner Valley. Today, Mount San Jacinto is a state park, and the San Jacinto Wilderness is also protected park land for the native flora and fauna.
Sadly, “The Desert Pirate” remains a lost silent film, but should it be rediscovered, viewers would get the privilege of seeing Keen Camp in all its glory nestled in the San Jacinto mountains.
“Tyrant of Red Gulch” is the third installment of the Tom Tyler lost silent film reconstruction series. Unlike the previous two projects, “When the Law Rides” (1928) and “Red Hot Hoofs” (1926), this silent film is a benchmark in the history of the Aventuras de Tom Tyler website. Details are included in the Introduction to the translation. Please read the Terms of Use before reading the actual story.
Most importantly, enjoy my translation, and hopefully this will be an incentive to rediscover “Tyrant of Red Gulch”.
Click here to read my translation!
In our third installment of the lost Tom Tyler silent film reconstruction series, "Tyrant of Red Gulch" (1928) with Frankie Darro, Serge Temoff and Josephine Borio has been selected. As with the previous two silent film reconstructions, “When the Law Rides” (1928) and “Red Hot Hoofs” (1926), the basis for this reconstruction will be the film's derivative published by Biblioteca Films. Existing copies of stills, promotional materials, and movie cards will be included in this project.
Once "Tyrant of Red Gulch" is translated, it will be posted here on the Aventuras de Tom Tyler Blog plus social media pages.
In observance of National Silent Movie Day, September 29, 2021, I am very pleased to say that my second translation project of “When the Law Rides” of the Biblioteca Films film booklet “La Ley en la Mano” is now completed and available for reading.
I encourage everyone to read the Introduction to my translation and Terms of Use before reading the actual story.
Most importantly, enjoy my translation, and hopefully this will be an incentive to rediscover “When the Law Rides”. I am hoping to add more of these film booklet translations as time permits in the near future to Aventuras de Tom Tyler.
Click here to read my translation!
In our next installment of the lost Tom Tyler silent film reconstruction series, "When the Law Rides" (1928) with Frankie Darro and Jane Reid has been selected. As with "Red Hot Hoofs", the basis for this reconstruction will be the film's derivative published by Biblioteca Films. Existing copies of stills, promotional materials, and movie cards will be included in this project.
Once "When the Law Rides" is translated, it will be posted here on the Aventuras de Tom Tyler Blog plus social media pages.
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| Tom Tyler with Frankie Darro in "The Desert Pirate" |
Since the beginning of his career as a leading man in western silent films, Tom Tyler’s films were intended for a young audience. The stories were cut and dried with the occasional creative plot such as the King Arthur theme in “The Sonora Kid” in 1927, but it was also that year when a more mature theme made its appearance in “The Desert Pirate”. For a story that dealt with the hero turning initially villainous to a young boy’s eyes marked a rite of passage to adulthood to the youthful audience, as was the case during the first four decades of the twentieth century.
Ten years old when he filmed “The Desert Pirate”, Frankie Darro is Jimmy Rand, a boy whose father John (Vester Pegg) is the leader of a gang of criminals who engage in cattle rustling. Nicknamed “The Desert Pirate”, John Rand pulled off his biggest job yet, along with his henchmen, shuffling off their new booty across the Great Basin Divide. Sheriff Tom Corrigan (Tom Tyler) is hot on their trail, having already caught six of John’s henchmen. Much to Rand’s consternation, one of his 
men, Shorty Gibbs (Thomas G. Lingham), left the gang on his own volition, only to try and rejoin. Late on night, Rand and Gibbs end up fighting while hiding out by Rock of the Snakes. At the center of the fight is Rand's young son Jimmy. Rand is under the impression that his son has no idea as to what is going on with regards to his illegal activities, and he seems blind to the fact that Jimmy is indeed aware, a fact brought up by Gibbs. Having no mother, the last thing Jimmy needed to know was that he did not have a real father figure in his life. For Rand, having to worry about his son knowing that he is an outlaw, was just as bad as worrying about Corrigan tracking him down and shooting him. Later that evening at the Rand homestead, John seriously asks his son Jimmy if he knew about the cattle rustling the elder Rand was involved in. It is at this moment when Jimmy feels like he has already lost his father, even though his father loves the boy very much, but not to the point where he is willing to go straight, and is not in a position to go straight, being unable to afford supporting a son. For all intents and purposes, the last person John Rand needs to lose is his son, but the law finally catch up with him.
In a major ambush, Tom Corrigan shoots The Desert Pirate, and discovering Jimmy, takes him under his wing. Tom feels bad for having shot the boy’s father, has a crisis of conscience before turning in his sheriff badge before moving away with Jimmy to a remote area and starting a new life together. The two pals arrive upon a distant ranch house and meet Ann Farnham (Duane Thompson), whose father is the owner. After making a gambling deal of his ranch to a bandit named Norton (Edward Hearn), the elder Farnham appeals to Tom to help save the property. More than happy to help the Farnhams due to his growing romance with Ann, Tom successfully defends their side while having it out with the crooked Norton. With the Farnham ranch in the clear, Tom marries Ann, and become new parents for Jimmy, the boy who lost his birth father through traumatic means, yet a much greater good happened for him which made for a happy ending.
“The Desert Pirate” marks the onscreen reunion of Tom Tyler with Frankie Darro after Tom's fans wrote in to FBO complaining about their separation during “The Cherokee Kid”. In many ways, “The Desert Pirate” is a milestone in Tom Tyler’s silent film career for its portrayal of a hero who needs to become a father figure to a young boy who lost his own father at the hands of the hero. As part of the mature themes in this silent film, having a “crisis of conscience” is explored in more than one character in the story. More importantly, Tom Tyler’s character as a former sheriff has the opportunity to redeem himself in the eyes of a young boy, and does so, when he takes on the crook who is intent on stealing the Farnham ranch for himself.
Written by Frank Howard Clark, and Tom Tyler's early Hollywood friend Oliver Drake who created the scenario, "The Desert Pirate" offers the viewer a different facet of Tom's onscreen persona, possibly the earliest of its kind, pre-"A Rider of the Plains" (1931). Tom’s role as sheriff is in an awkward position in the story, assuming a responsibility he had not planned for but felt he had a moral obligation to do so with regards to his relationship with Frankie Darro’s character.
Film reviews and synopses have proven to be scarce for “The Desert Pirate” although one film booklet in Spanish does exist, “El Pirata del Desierto”, issue number 13 in the series Los Films del Far-West. Upon completing the translation of this film booklet to provide a synopsis for this silent film’s page of the Aventuras de Tom Tyler website, I discovered the story to be much more than another western full of adventure and intrigue; there is solid dramatization included that evokes an image of reality. Additionally, film stills and movie posters do exist, as well as some arcade and exhibit cards containing scenes of Tom Tyler with Frankie Darro.
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“Partners of the Trail” (1931) is a pre-Code sound film made for Monogram Pictures, a company formed the same year this film was released. Its adult themes are different from those as presented in “The Desert Pirate”; here, infidelity, friendship with the accused, and murder are intertwined to make a gripping thriller for Tom’s maturing audience.
Tom Tyler portrays Larry Condon, a man who discovers his wife has been having an affair behind his back. Intent on taking the law into his own hands, Larry waits silently in his house for the right moment to catch his wife with her lover, and shoots at him. Believing that he killed the man, and not getting a clear look at him in the dark, leaves the house and a sleeping wife for the state of Arizona to avoid being caught by the local authorities. Larry meets a man named John Durant (Reginald Sheffield), who was implicated in the affair with Larry's wife. Both men use pseudonyms upon meeting each other face to face, and not knowing about each other’s backgrounds, immediately become friends. It is not long before Larry and John share an eye for a beautiful local girl, Ruby Gerard (Betty Mack).
The two men spend time with each other in town until one day when local law enforcement takes note of one of the men who they suspect was involved with the shooting crime. Durant gets arrested by Sheriff McWade (Lafe McKee) and put in jail for the crime that Larry committed. Thinking that he is safe for now, Larry continues to stay in town and lay low, until Durant eventually breaks jail. Finally recognizing Larry for who he is, Durant wants to shoot him in an act of revenge but decides against it. Striving to make amends because he valued the friendship he has with Larry, Durant resolves the conflict between them. Sheriff McWade discloses to the two men that the person shot dead was Larry’s wife, which means that her lover was Durant. Confessing to the crime, Larry is escorted off to jail while Durant ends up marrying Ruby.
“Partners of the Trail” seems to be the perfect western to follow “A Rider of the Plains” (1931), another Monogram Pictures film. According to The Western: From Silents to Cinerama (1962) by George N. Fenin and William K. Everson, "Partners of the Trail" describes a rather unusual scene for a common fanfare western of the early 1930's: an inebriated Durant scribbling his name on the adobe wall in his residence. The authors explain the reason for scenes like this is due to the fact that they could be done, before the Hays Code went into place in 1934. Post-Code Hollywood, the exhibiting of a drunk character, especially the protagonist, would not be seen writing all over the walls inside a house, regardless of what the written words may be. Likewise in the use of the theme of infidelity – a topic which until “Partners of the Trail” remained non-existent in Tom Tyler westerns. So why infidelity? Aside from the Hays Code, it is possible that this one-dominant topic of many a dramatic silent film might be viewed as more translatable to sound film in Tom’s case. As the fourth feature-length sound film Tom Tyler starred in, his first-generation audiences were certainly old enough to understand this adult concept, especially as they approached the age of marriage and full-time employment. That carefree interval known as teenage years remained yet to exist, being established in the 1950’s. What also needs to be taken into consideration is that Tom’s character is originally perceived to be chivalrous towards his wife, supposedly protecting her from the man who Larry thinks he shot but did not. Surprisingly, “Partners of the Trail” was marketed in such a manner to maintain the friction between Tom Tyler and his nemesis Reginald Sheffield in the movie and downplay exactly who Tom murders in the story. Moreover, the actress who does play Tom’s wife remains unnamed, possibly due to her very limited onscreen time at the beginning of the story.
"Partners of the Trail" was written by Will Beale and adapted by George Arthur Durlam who also wrote the screenplay, and while this remains Beale's only story to make it to the silver screen ("Partners of the Trail" was later remade as "Sagebrush Trail" in 1933 with John Wayne and Lane Chandler in the starring roles), such descriptions as the above mentioned scene and Durlam's work on Tom Tyler's "Two Fisted Justice" (1931) suggest that the writing is tight enough to receive some degree of acclaim and perhaps notoriety of being a lost film. As with many of the lost Monogram Pictures films, film stills and posters from "Partners of the Trail" have survived, along with synopses from Hollywood trade publications. Considering the nature of Tom Tyler’s character in this western, it is easily comparable to his role of an outlaw in “A Rider of the Plains”, quite possibly even an extension of Blackie Saunders, had the character’s name not been changed. On the plus side, “Partners of the Trail” and “The Desert Pirate” remain the earliest examples of mature themes in Tom’s films which he clearly had no trouble handling at all when he fell into role. For those who have seen and understood the intensity of Tom Tyler’s performance as Luke Plummer in “Stagecoach” (1939), the vast majority of his starring roles in westerns have been heroic, with few variations, but depict the fine actor he truly was.
I am very pleased to say that the translation project of “Red Hot Hoofs” from the Biblioteca Films film booklet “Por la fuerza de los puños” is now completed and available for reading.
I encourage everyone to read the Introduction to my translation and Terms of Use before reading the actual story.
Most importantly, enjoy my translation, hopefully this will be an incentive to rediscover the actual silent film. I am hoping to add more of these film booklet translations as time permits in the near future to Aventuras de Tom Tyler.
Click here to read my translation!
There is a special project in the works for one of Tom Tyler’s lost silent films, “Red Hot Hoofs”, from 1926 and produced by FBO. Those who are familiar with “Rip Roarin' Buckaroo (1936)” will recognize the boxing theme in “Red Hot Hoofs”; a number of movie posters and stills have survived. Some interesting trivia about “Red Hot Hoofs”: real-life champion boxer Al Kaufman appears as Battling Jack Riley, but this silent film also marks Kaufman’s last film ever made.
The best part about this project – well, that will come when it’s ready, and it will be posted here on the Aventuras de Tom Tyler Blog plus social media pages.
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| "The Desert Pirate" 1927 |
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| "A Rider of the Plains" 1931 |
