The Cyclone Cavalier (Silent)

Ted Clayton is a lazy playboy who spends his days dreaming of becoming a masked hero like Zorro. Looking to make a man out of his son, his millionaire father sends Ted overseas to manage the family's real estate interests. In the small nation of Costa Blanca, he meets President Gonzales and his daughter, Rosita. Upon meeting the curvy beauty, Ted immediately becomes interested in "diplomatic relations." But their burgeoning romance is interrupted by 'El Diablo', a rebel leader who plots to overthrow the government. When Rosita is kidnapped, Ted decides to live out his fantasies. He dons a cape and dubs himself 'The Cyclone Cavalier'. The young man is soon over his head as he takes on Diablo's forces in the adventure of a lifetime...

Cyclone Cavalier was directly inspired the success of The Mark of Zorro (1920) starring Douglas Fairbanks. Reed Howes was a natural choice for the lead role, as his athletic ability was equal to that of Fairbanks's. A matinee idol during the silent era, Howes transitioned to playing villains and supporting parts in 'B' Westerns upon the advent of talkies. Sexy Carmelita Geraghty had previously been one of Mack Sennett's Bathing Beauties. In the sound era, director Albert S. Rogell made films as diverse as the comic strip adaptation Lil' Abner (1940) and the Basil Rathbone-Bela Lugosi horror comedy The Black Cat (1941).

BONUS: A Fight In Mid-Air (B&W, 1922, SILENT): 'A Fight in Mid-Air' is the only surviving chapter of the ultra-rare movie serial Captain Kidd (1922). Cousins Eddie Davis and Phillip Raleigh, descendants of Captain Kidd, compete to find the location of the notorious pirate's treasure map. Leading man Eddie Polo was a prolific Hollywood stuntman during the silent era. He had previously been renown as both a circus acrobat and the first man to parachute off the Eiffel Tower (in 1915). In the late 1920s, Polo moved to Germany, where he starred in his own series of stunt-oriented pictures (usually playing himself.) His daughter, actress Malvina Polo, had roles in Erich von Stroheim's Foolish Wives (1922) and Charlie Chaplin's A Woman of Paris (1923). Directed by Burton L. King, J.P. McGowan

• silent