Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Ace of Cactus Range (1924)

This B-studio western, directed by Denver Dixon (Victor Adamson) and Malon Andrus, stars Art Mix with Virginia Warwick, Clifford Davidson and Harvey Stafford.

Deputy U.S. Marshall ‘Bob’ Cullen (Mix) is on a secret mission in the desert and stumbles upon Virginia Marsden (Warwick) evading Bull Davidson (Davidson) the leader of a small gang of outlaws working the Mexican border. Meanwhile, corrupt weasel (with a silly moustache) Randolph Truthers (Stafford) is in cahoots with Davidson in a gemstone smuggling scheme.

Because ‘he knows too much’, Virginia and her father are kidnapped by Truthers and Davidson who take them into the desert with Cullen and the law in pursuit.

There’s no sign of the diamonds (spoiler alert! — until the end) and the film’s action is mostly comprised of horseback riding through the desert and a few fist fights. Nonetheless, the law and love prevail over the forces of evil.

It’s worth mentioning that the quick and dirty production values of low-budget westerns are to be seen in cameraman Jack Fuqua’s difficulty in keeping the actors in frame during horse riding sequences that were shot from a moving camera car. Time and money did not allow for longer takes that might have yielded more stable footage for the film’s editor to use.

The film is no great shakes, with its formula plot and stereotypical characters including the small town sheriff who is in his seventies (seems like they all are), but it is representative of common Saturday afternoon neighborhood theater fare of the mid-1920s.

— Carl Bennett

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print which has more than a few splices, presumably from print breaks, that sometimes causes the picture to jump out of frame. Reel two of the original source print was in active decomposition when it was duplicated and the image is often obliterated by the print damage. As is typical of most reduction prints, the backgrounds are often nearly solid black as the picture contrast favors keeping some details in highlights to the loss of shadow details. The video transfer, which runs close to natural speed, is at best OK but the picture is overcropped by a bit and cuts off the left side of intertitles from time to time.

The film is accompanied by a music score compiled from preexisting music sources, mostly a synthesizer performance (that sounds like Eric Beheim) that is at times taxing.

Not a great presentation but this is the best home video edition of the film we know of.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD+R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD+R edition is also available directly from . . .

The film is likely accompanied by a compiled music score of preexisting recordings.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is also available directly from . . .

The disc had no navigation menu, chapter stops or package artwork and was sold in a clear clamshell case.

NOSTALGIA FAMILY VIDEO has discontinued business and this DVD-R edition is . . .