Acting
True Boardman was an American actor. He died of the Spanish flu in 1918.
The sheriff of Mendocino County receives a letter from Bill Kato, proprietor of a ranch, stating that he is tired of losing his cattle and that if he can't find time to do something in the matter, he will have to see the higher authorities. The sheriff at once starts out on the trail of the rustlers.
A female ape takes to mothering the orphaned boy (Tarzan) and raises him over the course of many years until a rescue mission is finally launched and the search party combs the jungle for the long-time missing Lord Greystoke. But then, one of the search members, Jane Porter, gets separated from the group and comes face to face with fearsome wild animals. Tarzan saves her from harm just in the knick of time and love begins to blossom.
While on the way to visit her mother, Mrs. Bailey stops to feed the horses. She discovers that the oats had leaked out of the bag and she is compelled to ask assistance of a party camping nearby. During her absence from the buggy, her young daughter strays off into the woods and falls over a high cliff.
Wealthy Irving Randolph is falsely denounced as a deliberate murderer by his greedy younger brother when Randolph, during a rifle shooting contest, accidentally kills a man with whom he has had an altercation. Fleeing to Australia, Randolph becomes known as the bandit Stingaree and is aided in his Robin Hood like adventures by his friend Howie and his sweetheart Ethel.
1919 Western serial.
"Sidewinder Steve" returns to civilization to find that his ore specimens show he has discovered a turquoise mine. He wires his friend, Ace Brent, the capitalist, who has a half-interest in his discoveries, to furnish him with money to make the trip back across the desert to officially stake his claim. But "Lonney" Smith, telegraph operator at the town and secret spy for The Syndicate, Brent's rivals, informs his employers of the new "strike," and they dispatch their agent Meyers to thwart Brent. The latter, recovering from injuries received in a previous encounter with sheep herders, consents to allow Barbara to handle the affair. Her admirer, John Wallace, follows her to the desert town, fearing for her safety. The action then develops into a thrilling three-cornered race across the desert between Barbara and John, Lonney and Meyers, and a gang of local adventurers headed by "Dry Wash" Sexton, proprietor of the "saloon and hotel."
Broncho Billy, an outlaw, while being pursued by the sheriff of Bear County, crosses the line into Gulch County. Later he is captured by the Gulch County authorities, who wire to the neighboring sheriff's office to send a man to bring the prisoner back. A deputy sheriff is sent and that night they stop at a small hotel. Broncho and the deputy become quite friendly and Broncho induces him to remove his handcuffs. While Broncho Billy sleeps the deputy steals downstairs and enters a card game. He loses heavily. He returns to the room and tells Broncho of his loss. They then both turn in for the night. While the deputy sleeps, Broncho slips his gun from his pocket, goes downstairs and holds up the gamblers. Without waking his guardian, he places the loot on the table, then writes a note, telling the deputy that he has gone to the boundary and will be waiting for him there.
Broncho marries a Mexican girl at the earnest entreaty of her dying father. Later a Mexican singer wins her love and, to get Broncho out of the way, she has him arrested and jailed on the charge of having assaulted her. In a frenzy of rage, Broncho secures the sheriff's revolver, escapes from jail and tracks the pair at his shack.
This time Alkali Ike is dissatisfied with his boarding house and, when the buxom Sophie, a two-hundred-pound widow arrives in town, buys out Tony's place and nails up cards announcing that it will be opened on the following Tuesday as a first-class boarding house, Alkali is the first to see it, rushes back and begins to lay plans for switching at once.
Broncho Billy and his pals plot to rob the general store. Broncho Billy is elected to go into the store and engage the proprietor in conversation while the others enter the rear door and rob the till.
Dick Benton is making a game attempt to start life all over again, after escaping from prison where he was confined for a crime he did not commit. "Peeler" White, who was really guilty, and who aided Benton to escape without telling the reason for his interest, stumbles across the young man who is now an express messenger. "Peeler" threatens to disclose his knowledge unless Benton aids him in a fake hold-up. The young man pretends to be a willing victim, but really warns the railroad detectives and "Peeler" and his companion find themselves in a trap on the train the following day.
Broncho Billy is a typical bad man. The story opens with him shooting up a small town in the west, and scaring the inhabitants nearly to death. The sheriff with his deputies order him out of the country. Sunday morning, the congregation is in church singing. Boardman, another bad man, and his protégés, break up the meeting. The preacher is ousted.
Netty Parker and her sister, Mildred, two brave western girls, are instrumental in capturing two notorious outlaws in the cleverest of ways. Returning from town early one evening, they discover two bandits who have held up the afternoon stage, laughing over the division of the loot.
Broncho Billy, the town good-for-nothing, makes his headquarters at the saloon, where he makes a few cents each day by sweeping out the place. One morning the hotel proprietor, the general store keeper and the chairman of the town board, upon going to their places of business, find that they have been robbed.
Barbara, finding her automobile disabled, is forced to go to the Storms reception in a taxi. The chauffeur brings her to the wrong house, and she finds herself greeted by The Blind Mole, as "English Rose." The Blind Mole, a picturesque Central American character, takes her into his confidence regarding his plans for a revolution in Costa Blanca. Suddenly Arenzo, a rival revolutionist, arrives with his followers, and in the battle that follows The Blind Mole is killed. Arenzo also thinks that Barbara is "English Rose," and forces her to accompany him. The scenes that follow, telling in exciting manner how Wallace and a reporter succeed in unraveling the mystery of Barbara's disappearance and how that adventurous girl thwarts the schemes of the "gun runners," culminate in a spirited conflict aboard the schooner which was to bear the revolutionists' arms to Costa Blanca.
The accidental overturning of their "prairie schooner" kills a settler and his wife and leaves their little baby girl, Sunbeam, alone in the world. Discovered by Big Wolf, an Indian brave from a nearby tribe, Sunbeam is adopted and brought up as one of their number.
Broncho Billy had promised Marguerite that he would never drink again. She agreed to marry him. That afternoon, one of the village gossips sees Marguerite with Boy Turner, a surveyor, and hastens to inform Broncho of it. Marguerite's sweetheart threatens to kill the surveyor, but finally suggests a duel to be fought ten minutes later. Marguerite hears of it, hastens to the minister's home, where she gets him and takes him to Kelly's saloon.
Greed for gold, this is what has dragged many a man downward. Skinflint, a miser, not satisfied with the gold he boards, tries to make a practice of selling whiskey to the Indians, taking from them practically all the gold they possess for just a few glasses of the fire water. Skinflint might have succeeded had it not been for Bill Riley, a prospector, who quickly takes the bottle of intoxicating liquor from the Indian and smashes it on a nearby rock. Skinflint becomes enraged and determines to get even.
The film is directed by James Davis from a story by Edward T. Matlack. In this episode Helen Gibson performs one absolutely breathtaking stunt, which just shows how dangerous it was to act for silent film pioneers, especially for stuntmen and stuntwomen. There is a twist to the plot, and Helen Gibson not only has to save her governor from mortal danger, but also the life of somebody close to her, who has been sentenced to die without guilt.
Slippery Slim secures a marriage license in the hope of marrying Sophie.