Sky High (1922).

Review #1783: Sky High.

Cast: 

Tom Mix (Tom Newbury), J. Farrell MacDonald (Jim Frazer), Eva Novak (Estelle Halloway - his ward), Sid Jordan (Andrew Bates), William Buckley (Victor Castle), Adele Warner (Marguerite Castle), Wynn Mace (Henchman Patterson), and Pat Chrisman (Pasquale - Henchman) Written and Directed by Lynn Reynolds.

Review: 

In a way, this is exactly the time to spring a tale of a somewhat obscure director and the actor that starred in several of his films that became one of the first Western icons. Tom Mix was born in Pennsylvania in 1880, where he learned to ride horses from an early age. He worked a variety of jobs before breaking into film, one of which included working in a ranch with a touring Wild West show. Mix began his film career in 1909 with the Selig Polyscope Company, going from supporting actor to a star of his own in the near decade he worked with them. By 1917, he signed with William Fox's Fox Film Corporation, where he would make a string of Western films that consisted of shorts and feature-length (with Mix even directing some of the former category himself). His salary and the growing demand for imitation Westerns led to his departure from Fox in 1928; he appeared in fourteen films and one serial for two studios before his retirement in 1935. By this time, he had appeared in over 200 films, although a good deal of them is lost (a significant amount of Fox Film's silent film output was lost in a vault fire that occurred in 1937). What is remembered about Mix was the various programs that bore his name, which involved radio and comic books. Of course, one can't forget about the director behind the camera, even if time has perhaps made him obscure to audiences of the Western. Iowa native Lynn Reynolds directed Mix in nineteen films in a career that saw him direct 81 films (several shorts) from 1915 to 1927; he died that year, having shot himself at the age of 37 after a quarrel with his wife (about alleged infidelity on each side) led to him shooting himself.

The film we are talking about is a bit curious to consider. On one side, you have a government agent going around trying to find smugglers of Chinese immigrants (with "jewels and laces"!) and on the other side is the fact that this mostly takes place in the Grand Canyon that sees our hero rescue the ward of someone who just happens to also lead the gang. Of course, one can also see horse-riding and airplanes here, so we have a contemporary Western. Well, at least for the time, since it is now a century since this film was first released, although the stunt involving Mix and his plane is still quite interesting. As the successor to Western stars such as William S. Hart, one can see the interest audiences had in his flashy charm that showed grittiness within stunts while seeming capable in whatever story was thrown at him. In this case, a contemporary Western with shots of the Grand Canyon is a fair fit; Mix maintains interest in the film where a lesser actor might have made one go to sleep (or if the film really did try to build up chemistry with Novak beyond the contrivance levels it already was bubbling up to). Of course, MacDonald was a noted character presence for several years, and he makes a fair foil. Novak at least seems ready to have a go in cursory action, which makes up for the offbeat "ward" thing (hard to do when you look 25). The movie moves at a careful pace that seems just right for Reynolds to make solid work of, in that it has decent location shooting, a plot that makes semi-sense, and folks interested to make it happen with some enthusiasm. Granted, the movie isn't particularly great by any means, but one could do less to fill an hour than to deal with a movie like this. It may not be a seminal film of the silent era, but a century hasn't taken off its appeal when it comes to both Mix and Reynolds in the discussion of the evolving Western.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Next Time: Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926).