Nostalgia USA April 2016 Nostalgia USA April Issue 2016 | Page 18

FEATURED SERIAL OF THE MONTH
T h e M ir ac l e R id er 12 A pr il 1935
Pa r t s 1-7 o f a 15 Pa r t Ser ia l

T

he Miracle Rider is
a 1935 Mascot
movie
serial
directed by B. Reeves Eason
and Armand Schaefer. The
serial stars silent movie
cowboy star Tom Mix in his
last major film role.
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. This was
Tom Mix's last film and his
only sound serial. Tom Mix
was still an A-list star in
1935, alongside Charles
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. Filming of the outdoor
action sequences took place
primarily at the Iverson
Movie Ranch in Chatsworth,
California on the outskirts of
Los Angeles. The movie
ranch, which had been in use
as a filming location since
the early silent movie era,
was known for its rugged
landscape and giant
sandstone boulders. One of
those boulders became
known as Tom Mix Rock in
later years, after it was

discovered that bootholes
had been carved in the rock
to help the actor shoot a
scene atop the rock for The
Miracle Rider.