SKY HIGH (1922)

Grant Newbury is an immigration agent whom we first meet as he stops a driver heading through the desert near Calexico at the Mexican border. He forces the three women passengers out of the car and pulls off their wigs to reveal that they are Chinese men being smuggled into the States. The leader of the smuggling gang, and the man Grant hopes to find and arrest, is Jim Frazer, and we soon learn that Frazer has a ward, Estelle Holloway, who has just graduated in Chicago and is coming out west to visit her guardian (whom she calls Guardy). He arranges to meet her at the Grand Canyon where he has stashed some 200 Chinese men who are smuggling in "jewels and laces." Estelle and her friend Marguerite, accompanied by a chaperone, Marguerite's brother Victor, head out to stay at a hotel near the Canyon. Grant goes undercover in Calexico and gets a job with Frazer's group, headed by his chief henchman Bates, and winds up in the Grand Canyon helping to guard the Chinese men. When Grant tries to sneak away to inform his bosses about the smugglers, Estelle is assaulted by Victor and runs off into the Canyon, getting lost and falling into the river. Grant saves her and installs her in a small cave on a ledge overnight. By the next day, Bates has figured out that Grant is a spy and as he searches for him, Bates finds Estelle and takes her with him, leading to a confrontation that involves a horse chase down the steep Canyon walls. Grant escapes, gets to a nearby town, and enlists a pilot to fly him over the Canyon to drop him in the river in order to save Estelle and capture Bates.

The bulk of this silent film was shot on location in and above the Grand Canyon, and the stunt work, much of it done by the star, Tom Mix (Grant), is impressive. The aerial footage is a bit primitive, but supposedly this was the first time that such a filming had been attempted. Tom Mix was a wildly popular Western star, though by the sound era, he was in decline and worked mostly in radio, and this is the first one of his movies I've seen. He seems awfully average as a cowboy type, nor especially good-looking or charismatic, but he fills the hero role adequately. Slightly better are Eva Novak (Estelle) who was a frequent co-star of Mix's, and Sid Jordan (Bates) who glowers well and has a forerunner of the 1970s clone-style mustache (pictured). The movie’s running time of one hour ensures a quick pace. The shots of people running up and down the Canyon walls and rocks are exciting, as is the horse chase—at the end of which, the horse takes a nasty spill but gets up again, seemingly no worse for the wear. The newly added musical score on solo piano by Ben Model, is unobtrusive, which is meant as praise. The Blu-ray restoration which TCM showed is astonishingly clear and sharp, with few flaws or splices. [TCM]