$50,000 Reward (Silent) (with Bonus Short, "Then Came The Yawn")

Cowboy Tex Sherwood arrives in a small Montana town to claim the land he has inherited. Crooked banker Asa Holman is aware that the new dam being constructed there could bring in millions and plots to steal the property. Tex eventually learns the truth from Carolyn Jordan, who's supervising the building of the dam - but it might already be too late for him to stop Holman and his gunmen.Champion rodeo rider and former circus performer Ken Maynard had only been working in motion pictures for a year when independent producer/director Clifford S. Elfelt contracted him to appear in six low-budget Westerns released during 1924 and 1925. The first of these, $50,000 Reward, established Ken as a high-spirited young daredevil whose feats of horsemanship were second only to those of Tom Mix, the screen's foremost cowboy star. - Ed Hulse

Includes bonus short film, Then Came The Yawn (1932, B&W, 7 minutes).

• western