Ruth of the Rockies

Ruth of the Rockies is a 1920 American silent Western film serial directed by George Marshall. Two of the 15 episodes survive in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.[1]

As described in a film magazine,[2] in New York City breezy Bab Murphy (Roland) comes into possession of a trunk with the insignia of the Inner Circle, a gang of crooks, who have their headquarters in Dusty Bend along the Mexican border but also operate in New York. The gang trails the trunk to ownership by Bab and, for it and a jade ring that is mysteriously sent to her, a series of adventures begin as she heads for the Bend.

Members of the gang throw the trunk off a train into the California desert where it is picked up by two accomplices in an automobile, only to have an aviator who flies low enough to overpower them and intercept the trunk by taking their place at the wheel. This birdman of mystery will later save Bab from the enforced marriage to a member of the gang, and by the third episode saves her from being imprisoned on the narrow balcony of a high tower.