Heart Of Texas Ryan, The; Single Shot Parker

2211. SINGLE SHOT PARKER (The Heart Of Texas Ryan) (1917-usa). With Tom Mix. This atmospheric and action-packed Western is a most effective union of blazing six- guns and romance. The setting is the rugged and cactus-studded plains of Southwest Texas. It is a place “where those with the quickest trigger fingers are the oldest inhabitants.” Pretty rancher’s daughter Texas Ryan returns there after spending two years back East at college. Her period away from home has not lessened her love of the prairie. Yet at the same time it has nurtured within her a desire to see the West tamed. Texas has come to believe that brains and not brawn should be employed when dealing with dangerous situations. Mix plays the title character, a tough-talking and hard-living cowpoke who is the “newest, noisiest and nerviest cowpuncher on the Ryan ranch.” Single Shot has fallen in love with the image on a photograph of a girl he has never seen. That girl is Texas Ryan. As the story unfolds Parker comes in conflict with Texas’ pacifism as he attempts to win her love. He also must contend with several villains. One is a crooked sheriff who is the leader of a band of cattle thieves. Another is the sheriffs accomplice, a Mexican bandit who first covets Tex, and later kidnaps her and holds her for ransom. Near the finale is a desperate sagebrush manhunt which surely will put Parker’s life in perilous danger. “Silent” film with music score. 55 minutes. ÒSilentÓ Western