Final film of Tom Mix. NOTE: After this film he retired from the screen, and died in a car accident 4-1/2 years later.
At 306 minutes, this was the lengthiest of the sound serials.
Mascot pretty much pioneered the two-director approach to serials with this film, a system much copied by other studios (Republic, Columbia, Universal) for their own serial output. One director, an action specialist (in this case B. Reeves Eason), would shoot all the outdoor action and stunt scenes. A second director, more suited to handling dialogue scenes (in this case, Armand Schaefer), would simultaneously shoot all the interiors and dialogue scenes. In this way production time was halved, at considerable savings. Levine's main concern was keeping star Tom Mix's time spent filming to a minimum, as he was paying Mix $10,000 a week. Because of Levine's efficient production methods, he was able to keep Mix's shooting schedule down to four weeks.
CHAPTER TITLES: 1. The Vanishing Indian; 2. The Firebird Strikes; 3. The Flying Knife; 4. A Race With Death; 5. Double-Barreled Doom; 6. Thundering Hoofs; 7. The Dragnet; 8. Guerilla Warfare; 9. The Silver Band; 10. Signal Fires; 11. A Traitor Dies; 12. Danger Rides With Death; 13. The Secret of X-94; 14. Between Two Fires; 15. Justice Rides the Range.
This serial was originally intended to be titled "The Indian Ranger".