The Cult Collection Comparable to the Style of Lightning Bryce: Cul...

Dir: Paul Hurst

An Indian woman relates the story of her son who was a half-breed. He is beaten and tormented by everyone but a white girl who loves a trader. She is betrayed by the trader, and when her small brother discovers her trouble he tells the half-breed. The girl kills herself, but the trader accuses the half-breed. With everyone attacking him, he makes his way to the trader, avenges the girl and dies.

Dir: Paul Hurst

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Rangeland perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Depury sheriff Ned Williams is sent to capture a cattle thief in the area. The thief turns out to be a young woman, Betty Howard, who steals to keep her young siblings form starving to death and their hardscrabble homestead after the father has died. Buck Kelly, an enemy of Ned's, frames him and abducts Betty.

Dir: Paul Hurst

A ranch foreman captures a notorious gang of gold thieves. He ties them up and leaves them for a pursuing posse while he goes out to find the gold they stole. When the posse arrives, the gang's leader convinces them that the foreman is actually the gold thief, and the posse sets out in pursuit of him.

Dir: Paul Hurst

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Demon Rider perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Episode 1: "The Jackaroo" Maud Norman, the owner of the G Block Station, an Australian sheep run, points out to her manager, Glover, that her flocks have been seriously ravaged by the continued droughts of the past year. But her financial difficulties are somewhat lessened by the arrival of Jack Tabourdin, whose father sends Maud a check for one hundred pounds in payment for taking his son on as a "jackaroo" or apprentice on the sheep run. The following April when a payment of 500 pounds is due on the purchase of the sheep station, and Maud, foreseeing that, she will be unable to meet the payment, advertises for sale her favorite horse, Polly. Stingaree, the gentleman bushranger, and his partner, Howie, read this advertisement, and Stingaree decides that he must have Polly. Tabourdin, the jackaroo, overhears Maud and Glover discussing the sale of Polly. He remembers a handbill advertising 500 pounds reward for the capture of the bushranger, Stingaree. He wonders if he could spare Maud the loss of her favorite horse by capturing the outlaw. He receives an opportunity to do so, when, during the absence of Maud and Glover, Stingaree and Howie arrive at the station to get the horse. He fires at them as they are entering the stable. They run away, but by a subterfuge they make the jackaroo a prisoner. They take him to their camp, and are overjoyed to find that the jackaroo pursued them on the horse they had sought. In camp the jackaroo tells Stingaree the reason for his attempt to capture the bushranger. Stingaree, always too chivalrous to see a woman in trouble, proposes a plan to Howie and sends him away to the Kangaroo Hotel at Topanga. Then, feigning carelessness, he allows the jackaroo to make him a prisoner and take him to the troopers' quarters at Topanga, where Stingaree is locked up, and the jackaroo departs with his 500 pounds reward. Howie bursts into the Kangaroo Hotel at Topanga and holds up the bar. There is a trooper present, and Howie allows him to sneak away to give the alarm to the other troopers. The troopers rush away from the barracks, leaving only one man to guard Stingaree. Arriving at the hotel, they see what is apparently Howie riding away. They give pursuit and overtake the horse, only to find it is carrying only a dummy of straw, which Howie has rigged up for the occasion. Howie hurries to the barracks, where he overpowers the one trooper left in charge of Stingaree, and helps his partner to escape. Stingaree and Howie ride back to their old haunts, while the jackaroo returns to the G Block Station and persuades Maud to accept the 500 pounds as a loan to pay off the note on the sheep run.

Dir: Paul Hurst

A miner has struck it rich and gives some ore to cowhand Jess Dean to take to his granddaughter. But Horse Williams has the miner shot and uses the ore found on Jess to accuse him of the murder. Jess escapes from the mob of townspeople who later learn that the body of the supposedly dead miner has mysteriously disappeared.

Dir: Paul Hurst

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Further Adventures of Stingaree perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Returning from a conference with the White Men in Washington, the Medicine Man of the Arapahoe brings with him two hats, the hat worn by the white men in war and a top hat, which he and the Indians believe to have wonderful powers. While the Medicine Man is displaying his possessions, his daughter accidentally shoots an arrow through the top hat, and he promises her to the first man who asks for her. The Weasel speaks first and in spite of her protest, she is given to him. But her lover threatens the Weasel and he agrees to give her up. Her father refuses to take back his word, but the girl proves that the Weasel is a thief and the lover mends the top hat, so he takes back his word and the girl and her lover are united.

Dir: Paul Hurst

An old chief of the peaceful tribe of Arapahoes tells a tale of a friend of his youth who was a scout with the famous Seventh Cavalry in Wyoming. A pioneer bound for California with his daughter was attacked by a white renegade and his Indian allies. The "Man Who Smiled" used the strategy of his race and helped to rescue the travelers. He was shot but still smiled and did not give up until the girl was restored to her lover, the First Lieutenant of the Seventh. An interesting story of friendship between Indian and white man in the early days of the West.

Dir: Paul Hurst

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Branded a Bandit perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Terry Baldwin inherits a ranch under the stipulation that he finds the ghost that haunts it.

Dir: Paul Hurst

Col. McCoy, the friend of the Indians who knows their sign language, goes to an Arapahoe village to visit some of the old chiefs. He sees a man who talks the Indian language, but who unquestionably belongs to the white race. Years ago a young boy and his sister sought shelter with the Indians after a runaway in which their wagon was smashed and their uncle killed. The girl was kidnapped by a half-breed and rescued by the boy and a young man of the girl's own race who loved her. She married her lover and the boy decided he'd be an Indian brave and remained all his life with the people he had chosen.

Dir: Paul Hurst

Esteban, a white boy, is reared by an Indian squaw, whom he believes to be his mother and from whom Beaugard steals the papers documenting Esteban's birth and his right to inherit a ranch. When he is grown, Esteban falls in love with Patricia Benton, Beaugard "exposes" Esteban to Patricia, and the villain taunts the lad that he has no right to a white woman. After a series of adventures in which Esteban recovers Patricia from Beaugard's grasp, the couple happily learn the truth from Esteban's "mother."