Ruth Royce on AllMovie

A dark-haired, slightly Eurasian-looking American screen actress, Ruth Royce was arguably the best serial and western villainess of the silent era, eclipsing, in sheer wickedness, that earlier prairie vamp, Louise Glaum. Royce modelled her sagebrush vixens more after Harry Woods than Theda Bara, it seems, rarely lusting after the hero's body but what he could do for her wealth or power. Unfortunately, neither Royce's own career nor female serial dominance in general survived the changeover to sound, and the screen would have to wait until the 1940s, and the likes of Lorna Grey and Carol Forman, to resurrect the action-packed femme fatale.