Plot outline

Zaroff (Charles Middleton), a rancher and oil company owner, wants to drive the Ravenhead Indians off their reservation so that he can mine the rare element X-94, a super explosive, found there and sell it to the highest bidder. Texas Ranger Tom Morgan tries to stop him and save the tribe.

Production

This was Tom Mix’s last film and his only sound serial. Tom Mix was still an A-list star in 1935, along side Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr and Mary Pickford. He was paid $40,000 for four weeks work on The Miracle Rider, which he used as urgent funding to support his circus.

The serial combined the large cast and interlocking plots of a silent serial with the science fiction and cliffhangers of the sound era.

Stunts

Tom Mix, whose voice was strained and nasal due to a repeatedly broken nose and a bullet through his throat, did a lot of his own stunts, although some were doubled by Cliff Lyons.

Cast

• Tom Mix as Tom Morgan, Texas Ranger
• Joan Gale as Ruth
• Charles Middleton as Zaroff, a rancher and oil company owner
• Robert Frazer as Chief Black Wing
• Niles Welch as Metzger
• Jason Robards Sr. as Carlton (Jason Robards)
• Bob Kortman as Longboat
• Edward Earle as Christopher Adams, Indian Agent
• Edward Hearn as Emil Janss
• Tom London as Sewell, one of Zaroff’s henchmen
• Edmund Cobb as Vining, one of Zaroff’s henchmen
• Ernie Adams as John Stelter