Tide of Empire

I got a kick out of this film mostly because it is set in the area where I live, the gold country of California, which is now also celebrating the sesquicentennial of the discovery of gold. But the film is very routine, with Tom Keene going into partnership with jailer James Bradbury, Sr. to search for gold. There is a love interest, Renée Adorée, a bad guy in the person of Fred Kohler who leads a gang looking to loot the gold amassed in the town, and some suspense when Kohler forces Adorée's brother, William Collier, Jr., to join the gang against his will and participate in the raid. The gang is in for a big surprise when Keene overhears their plans. There's almost no comedy in the film.

The film was caught in the transition to sound, so it is a silent film with music and sound effects added. It runs at the sound speed which causes the action to speed up, sometimes very noticeably.