Silent Western Double Feature: Border Sheriff / The Last Chance (Silent)

Heroes with white hats contend with desperadoes who stay one jump ahead of the law as the Old West comes to life in two exciting and unusual Westerns from the silent era.

Border Sheriff (1926, B&W): There's action from sea to shining sea when Arizona lawman Sheriff Jack Collins is summoned to Washington, D.C. by the Secret Service and assigned to smash a U.S. - Mexico smuggling ring. The trail leads Collins to a notorious dive in San Francisco's Chinatown, "The Orient of America," and then back to Arizona, with plenty of brawls, gunplay and a leading lady convinced that Collins is one of the outlaws! Starring Jack Hoxie, Olive Hasbrouck, Al Jennings; Directed by Robert N. Bradbury.

The Last Chance (1926, B&W): Comically inept cowpoke Bill Dexter stumbles into the camp of renegade highwaymen who have just held up a stagecoach, stolen a payroll shipment and kidnapped the driver. Dexter announces that he wants to join the gang -- and that he eventually intends to become their leader! The laughter stops when he proves more than adept with guns and fists. Starring WM. "Bill" Patton, Dorothy Donald, Merrill McCormick; Written and Directed by Horace B. Carpenter.

This unusual, long-forgotten religious drama co-stars Hugh Beaumont (LEAVE IT TO BEAVER) and Margaret Hamilton (THE WIZARD OF OZ. It transpires in a Middle American town, where a European immigrant turned resident learns that the scourge of war has killed his wife. In the days that follow, he roams the streets searching for comfort, until a near-fatal automobile accident puts him at the mercy of the local citizenry. Movedd by empathy and compassion, the townspeople then band together to bring about his physical, emotional, mental and spiritual recovery. The film as a whole seeks to raise questions about God's interest in looking out for average men and women. Co-star Beaumont was reportedly an ordained Methodist minister in real life, which made the themes of this drama particularly relevant for him.