''The Tiger's Trail'' is a 1919 American

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

film serial A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, ge ...

starring

Ruth Roland Ruth Roland (August 26, 1892 – September 22, 1937) was an American stage and film actress and film producer. Early life and career Roland was born in San Francisco, California to Elizabeth Lillian Hauser and Jack Roland. Her father managed a t ...

, directed by Robert Ellis,

Louis J. Gasnier Louis Joseph Gasnier (September 15, 1875 – February 15, 1963) was a French-American film director, producer, screenwriter and stage actor. A cinema pioneer, Gasnier shepherded the early career of comedian Max Linder, co-directed the enormously ...

and

Paul Hurst Paul Michael Hurst (born 25 September 1974) is an English football manager and former player. As a player, he was a left back from 1993 to 2008, notably playing his entire career at Rotherham United, bar a brief loan spell with Burton Albion i ...

. A "fragmentary print" from the serial survives.

Plot

As described in a film magazine, Grim Gordon (Strong) is in possession of the Tiger Idol, stolen from a religious sect of Hindu tiger worshipers on an

East India East India is a region consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The states of Bihar and West Bengal lie on the Indo-Gangetic plain. Jharkhan ...

n island that he and Peter Strong and Col. Boyd visited years earlier. The two latter men were killed, but Belle Boyd (Roland), daughter of the colonel, is alive and has part of the "Pact of Three," a document torn into three parts that shows the location of a treasure discovered during the expedition. Gordon has a

pitchblende Uraninite, also known as pitchblende, is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely UO2 but because of oxidation typically contains variable proportions of U3O8. Radioactive decay of the urani ...

mine in the western United States, and among the workers are Hindus and Tiger Worshipers. Upon her arrival from an eastern school, Belle Boyd, ward of Gordon, is attacked by a gang of outlaws headed by Bull Shotwell (Kohler), but her life is saved by Jack Randall (Larkin), a mining engineer. Jack is employed by Gordon but helps the heroine Belle in outwitting the evil forces surrounding her that are attempting to obtain her portion of the torn Pact of Three. In one episode Belle is put into a cage with a live Bengal tiger, and in others she is the subject of several kidnapping attempts.

Cast

as Belle Boyd *

George Larkin George Larkin (November 11, 1887 – March 27, 1946) was an American film actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 150 films between 1910 and 1931. He was born and died in New York, New York. He was married to actress Ollie Kirkby. ...

as Jack Randall * Mark Strong as Randolph "Grim" Gordon * Harry Moody as Tiger Face *

Fred Kohler Fredrick Louis Kohler (April 20, 1888 – October 28, 1938) was an American actor. Career Fred Kohler was born in Kansas City, Missouri or in Dubuque, Iowa. As a teen, he began to pursue a career in vaudeville, but worked other jobs to suppor ...

as "Bull" Shotwell * George Field as Salonga *

Easter Walters Fern Easter Walters Kinch (March 25, 1894 – September 25, 1987) was an American actress and stuntwoman, with credits in at least five silent films. Early life Walters was born in Chariton, Iowa, the daughter of A. C. Walters and Cora O. Boyd ...

as Hilda, the Spy *

Bud Osborne Leonard Miles "Bud" Osborne (July 20, 1884 – February 2, 1964) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 600 films and television programs between 1912 and 1963. Biography Osborne was born Miles Osborne in Knox County, Texas, ...

as a henchman *

Rose Dione Claudine Rosalie Gras (22 October 1875 – 29 January 1936), professionally known as Rose Dione, was a French-American actress who appeared in numerous silent era and pre-code films. She appeared in more than 60 films between 1910 and ...

as Faro Nell (Dance Hall Queen)

Production

This serial, about a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

tiger worshiping sect and western outlaws, was based on ''The Long Arm'' by C. A. Logue. (SilentEra.com states that the serial was adapted by Gilson Willets from ''The Long Arm'' by

Arthur B. Reeve Arthur Benjamin Reeve (October 15, 1880 – August 9, 1936) was an American mystery writer. He is known best for creating the series character Professor Craig Kennedy, sometimes called "The American Sherlock Holmes", and Kennedy's Dr. Watson-like ...

). Real tigers were used in filming. The serial includes the "famous scene" of a human chain formed from the roof of a train, which enables the criminals to steal a valuable parcel from Ruth's compartment.

Episodes

# ''The Tiger Worshippers'' # ''The Glowing Eyes'' # ''The Human Chain'' # ''Danger Signals'' # ''The Tiger Trap'' # ''The Secret Assassin'' # ''The Flaming Waters'' # ''Danger Ahead'' # ''The Raging Torrent'' # ''Bringing In The Law'' # ''In The Breakers'' # ''The Two Amazons'' # ''The False Idol'' # ''The Mountain Hermit'' # ''The Tiger Face''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tigers Trail, The 1919 films 1919 adventure films American silent serial films American black-and-white films Silent American adventure films Lost American adventure films Pathé Exchange film serials Films directed by Louis J. Gasnier Films about treasure hunting 1919 lost films English-language adventure films 1910s English-language films 1910s American films Lost silent American films