Silent Western Double Feature: The Night Riders (1920) / Riding For Life (1925) (DVD)

THE NIGHT RIDERS (1920): John Tresler is investigating "The Night Riders", a gang of plunderers terrorizing the people of the Forks Settlement in the Rocky Mountains. Their leader is a hooded madman known only as "The Red Mask." Wounded during an encounter with the Riders, Tresler is nursed back to health by the beautiful Diana Marbolt, who lives on the "Bar T" ranch with her blind father. Tresler suspects the ranch's mean-spirited foreman, Jake Harnach, of being the Red Mask, but the masked man's real identity is more shocking than either of them can imagine...

A unique silent Western, The Night Riders was financed by a British producer (G.B. Samuelson), filmed in America (at Universal City in California), and takes place in Canada (Alberta). Based on a book by expatriate British writer Ridgwell Cullum (who wrote several pulp adventure novels set in Canada) it stars a young Albert Ray, who was much more prolific as a director during the sound era. His films include The Thirteenth Guest (1932) and A Shriek in the Night (1933). Possibly due to its overseas origins, The Night Riders was not shown in the U.S. until two years after its British premiere, when it was distributed by a company called Second National Pictures (not First National, as is often believed.)

RIDING FOR LIFE (1925): Wanted man Tex DeLong coerces mild-mannered bank clerk Bud Williams into helping him steal $30,000. Bud's brother Bob, a reformed crook, is falsely accused of the theft. Now the rough-riding cowboy must clear his name while evading the law at the same time.

Bob Reeves (1892-1960) was one of Universal's "B" Western stars during the silent era. The studio often paired him with Hoot Gibson, as in The Thrill Chaser (1923). He also made a series of low-budget Westerns for Anchor Film Distributors, of which Riding For Life was the seventh. Once sound rolled around, Reeves was considered too old to do the often back-breaking work the genre required. However, he continued to pop up in small roles in major films. He was one of the mailmen dumping bags of letters to Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Sadly, soon even those parts dried up. Bob Reeves died of a heart attack while waiting on the unemployment line at the age of 68.

• silent