The Man From Texas (1915, 1926)

Well, pardner, this little picture ain’t much but it rode a long and winding trail to get here. It was originally released in one reel in 1915 but by the mid-1920s, one reel westerns weren’t all that popular anymore so some enterprising movie mogul grabbed bits of three others, combined them all and sent them a’wanderin’ as a four reel feature.

This Frankenstein approach shows clearly as the picture ambles from one plot to another, providing a patchwork quilt of stereotypical western themes.

In the beginning Tom, as Texas, is working on a ranch somewhere when he receives a letter from his sister (Louella Maxam) telling him that the man she loves is abusing her and threatening to leave. Texas tells his boss he needs time off to see about things, and while he’s on the trail his sister dies. That starts story number one, the plot of the original short.

Texas will go to meet and fall in love with a local girl, Moya (Goldie Colwell), get elected sheriff, track down some stage robbers, bring a gang of rustlers to justice, and get hitched. Selig Company regulars Ed Brady, Sid Jordan, and Leo D. Maloney are all involved, and a very green Hoot Gibson appears as a deputy. 

Mix directed and concocted the stories himself, and editor Donald I. Buchanon wrote the titles. Mix’s direction is as basic as the stories. It’s all middle shots with one close-up of the star emoting painfully. 

If the film holds interest to anyone but a die-hard Tom Mix or early westerns fan it’s in the tale of how we even have it. The Man From Texas was considered lost until a retiree found it in a Madison, Wisconsin, rummage sale in 1983 and paid $10 for it.

The original film was shot on Prescott, Arizona’s Diamond “S” Ranch –a fictional ranch that was really just Selig Polyscope’s filming location. It, and the other three shorts that were cannibalized to create a feature, were probably shot in one day each, using the same actors, which was standard for Selig.

I think the picture is fun, but I’m a Tom Mix fan and get a kick out of most of his work, especially the early films in which he’s having a whale of a good time play-actin’ and being silly.