Directorial debut of William Witney. NOTE: The original director was Ray Taylor, but when he fell far behind schedule--crew members interviewed years later said that he often showed up for work drunk or began drinking early on the set, which was why production fell behind so much--he was removed and Witney, who was an assistant director, was told by the studio to finish the picture.
The rights to Hal G. Evarts' story were sold to Republic Pictures by his widow. Ironically, the serial isn't faithful whatsoever to Evarts' original story: the writers substituted an entirely different story.
Scenes showing the "La Villa Real De Santa Fe" have a miniature river prop in the foreground.
In Chapter: 12, when the Indian Rider's Painted Stallion is fighting a all-black stallion, this scene is taken from The Devil Horse (1926). This battle between stallions has been edited into Wild Horse Round-Up (1936), Comin' 'Round the Mountain (1936), Hit the Saddle (1937), The Devil Horse (1932), The Phantom of the West (1930), Law of the Wild (1934), and The Painted Stallion. The black stallion is actually the famous Rex the Wonder Horse. This battle between the two horses was never shown in its entirety before. In this movie it is complete.
The budget (expected cost) for this serial was $102,157. The Negative (actual) Cost was $109,164. Or $7007.00 over the budget.
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