Film Snail

Western

Riders of the Purple Sage

Riders of the Purple Sage

September 1, 1918

Lassiter quits the Texas Rangers and spends his life in pursuit of a group of Mormons who kidnapped his married sister. In a town on the Utah border, he meets the Withersteens and falls in love with their daughter, Jane. He also befriends Venters, and helps him track down some bandits who have been rustling the Withersteens' cattle.

The Lady of the Dugout

The Lady of the Dugout

September 1, 1918

Real life outlaw Al Jennings tells a "real" story about how he came to the aid of a woman who was abused by her alcoholic husband.

Lawless Love

Lawless Love

August 23, 1918

Vaudeville artist LaBelle Geraldine and her dancing partner, Freddie Montgomery, are stranded in Arizona when their troupe breaks up. In order to raise money, Geraldine orders Freddie to impersonate masked bandit Black Jim so that she may turn him in and collect the $2,000 reward. When the real Black Jim holds up her coach, Geraldine, believing that he is Freddie, boldly pulls out her gun, whereupon the bandit shoots her in the wrist and takes her to his cabin. Later Freddie, too, is captured, but when members of the gang insult Geraldine, he refuses to protect her. Gradually Black Jim falls in love with her, and she comes to admire him so deeply that instead of seizing a chance to escape one night, she returns to warn him of the gang's plot to kill him.

Roped and Tied

Roped and Tied

August 17, 1918

The hero, a stranger in a Western town, falls in love with an Innocent girl he discovers in a wine room. He wins her after several clashes with the villain, who also loves her.

A Woman's Fool

A Woman's Fool

August 17, 1918

Cowboy Lin McLean's restlessness takes him to Denver, where he becomes enamored of a waitress named Katie. Intending to marry her, Lin accompanies Katie back to the ranch, but a traveling rainmaker arrives in the little town, and Katie departs with him after revealing that he is her husband. Visiting Denver for Christmas, Lin adopts Katie's abandoned son Billy, and soon afterwards, the cowboy meets and falls in love with the new station agent, Jessamine "Jessie" Buckner. Lin and Jessie marry, and the little family is happy until Katie, determined to be rid of her neglectful husband and marry Lin instead, appears and drives Jessie away. Realizing that Lin does not love her, Katie poisons herself, and Jessie returns to Lin and Billy.

Riddle Gawne

Riddle Gawne

August 3, 1918

When Gawne finds his brother dying and hears that the killer has run off with his brother's wife, he swears revenge.

The Border Legion

The Border Legion

July 28, 1918

Cowhand Jim Cleve is wrongly accused of murder and rescued by Jack Kells, leader of a band of Idaho outlaws known as the Border Legion. But when the Legion takes Joan Randall prisoner and leaves Cleve to guard her, he realizes that he cannot remain part of an outlaw band and decides to rescue Joan.

Winner Takes All

Winner Takes All

July 20, 1918

Saul Chadron, a brutal cattle baron, is distressed that homesteaders are intruding on his domain and hires outlaws to drive them away.

Who's Your Father?

Who's Your Father?

June 30, 1918

This comedy starts with the rescue by a cowboy's dog of a baby that is floating down a gorge toward a cataract in a tiny crib. The cowboy takes the foundling to his cabin. Then the cowboy finds himself not only beset with the troubles of feeding an infant, but also is the object of a spinster who, by claiming the baby, hopes to compromise the cowboy

The Midnight Flyer

June 29, 1918

One of two former convicts is the brother of a girl station agent. The second ex-convict tries to blackmail the youth and drag him back to a criminal life, but the sister intervenes.

Hell Bent

Hell Bent

June 29, 1918

A cowboy must save his girlfriend from captivity and then cross the desert on foot with a single waterhole on the way.

The Eagle

The Eagle

June 22, 1918

Following his mother's death, John Gregory becomes the "Eagle," a thief determined to get even with the mining company that stole his family's fortune. Breaking into the company’s head office he discovers that another robber has preceded him and killed the night guard. When he is falsely accused, Lucy the girl he loves, discovers a written confession from the real killer just before John is to be hanged and rides wildly to the jail to save his life.

Play Straight or Fight

June 15, 1918

Helen is a strong-minded, upright, two-handed gunwoman and the protector of a younger brother who has fallen under the evil influence of unscrupulous companions. The climax of the story comes when Helen learns that her brother is to take part in a stage hold-up. To save him she dons male attire and holds up the stage at a point several miles in advance of her brother's attempt.

The Branded Man

June 13, 1918

A group of law-abiding cowboys work together to drive cattle rustlers off their range.

Smashing Through

Smashing Through

June 9, 1918

Claim jumper Dave Marco and his boss Earl Foster, a crooked investment broker, hire chemist Ralph Brandon to falsify papers that a certain worthless mine is valuable then convince Ralph's mother to invest all her money in the mine. Ralph’s sister Holly meets Jack Mason, whose mine is actually valuable though not yet profitable, and they fall for each other. Once Mrs. Brandon finds out she has been duped, though forced into silence by the threat of having Ralph’s malfeasance exposed, and Marco attempts to jump Jack’s claim events come to a head until the happy conclusion.

Ace High

Ace High

June 9, 1918

Annette finds a baby in the snow alongside her dead mother and takes it to Baptiste Dupre and his wife, where the two of them grow up. A corrupt sheriff is infatuated with her, and Jean Rivard (Tom Mix), an officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, must rescue her from him. Ace High is one of the earliest surviving Tom Mix westerns.

The Only Road

The Only Road

June 3, 1918

Tomboy Nita, a vegetable seller in a small Californian town, believes herself to be the daughter of poor ranch workers, but she is actually the daughter of Clara Hawkins, a wealthy neighbour who was stolen at birth and presumed dead. (NFA Catalogue)

Baree, Son of Kazan

Baree, Son of Kazan

May 27, 1918

From James Oliver Curwood's novel about a wolfdog.

Two-Gun Gussie

Two-Gun Gussie

May 19, 1918

A mild-mannered young man has left home, and is now playing the piano in a bar in the west. The dangerous criminal Dagger-Tooth Dan enters the bar where the young man is playing. Soon afterwards, the local sheriff also arrives, with some letters that he has received. Dan notices the letters, and he switches the information in them to make the sheriff think that the piano player is the dangerous one.

Selfish Yates

Selfish Yates

May 12, 1918

The story is set in Arizona, where the aptly nicknamed Yates is the proprietor of the local saloon. Unable to find any other work, pretty Mary Adams is forced to scrub floors in Yates' establishment. At first treating her with the same disdain that he extends to the rest of the townsfolk, Yates slowly but surely falls in love with Mary.