Fangs of Fate (Silent)

The Wild West town of Arcadia is being terrorized by the Black Raiders, an outlaw gang whose offenses stop just short of murder. While this is happening, Bob Haynes, a stranger in town, rescues the daughter of an innkeeper, Azalia Bolton, from being manhandled by some neighborhood roughs. Instantly smitten, Azalia suggests that Bob become deputy and rid Arcadia of the Black Raiders. She cannot possibly imagine that Bob is secretly the crooks' ringleader. Emboldened by the trusting girl's faith in him, Bob decides to bring his former friends to justice - but that may just cost him his life, either at the hands of his men…or hanging from the gallows, once his true identity is discovered...

A rare silent Western never before on DVD, Fangs of Fate stars William "Bill" Patton, a relatively forgotten cowboy star of the 1920s. Unlikely as it seems considering his slight frame, Patton got his start as a rodeo performer, winning the world's broncho busting championship at Brownsville, Texas in 1911. However, his physical prowess might have been exaggerated by the Hollywood press, as fellow cowboy actor Yakima Canutt was once heard to comment, "There's only three things Bill Patton's afraid of: horses, guns and the outdoors." Regardless, Patton starred in quite a few low-budget Westerns before being thrown under a horse during the shooting of The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) with Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky. Afterwards, he was strictly a cameo player, though he did get one starring role in the sound era, the otherwise undistinguished Arizona Trails (1935) directed by the multi-aliased Victor Adamson. Fangs of Fate director Horace B. Carpenter, on the other hand, is best known for playing mad scientist Dr. Meirschultz in the early horror exploitation classic Maniac (1934).

BONUS: Lazy Lem (1920): Milburn Morante plays a naive Western yokel who heads to Hollywood to try to sell some screenplays in this rare comedy two-reeler.