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One of the few extant westerns from Tom Mix's days with the Selig Polyscope Company, The Heart of Texas Ryan features a rather drab Mix far removed from the flamboyant Hollywood cowboy of the later Fox years. Mix is a cowpuncher on the Ryan ranch who falls for old man Ryan's pretty daughter (Bessie Eyton), recently returned from the East. At first thought of as something of a fool, Mix proves his worth by capturing a member of a notorious gang of rustlers. He is later kidnapped by the gang, and it is up to Miss Ryan to buy his release for the sum of $2,000. Character actor William Ryno, already then a grizzled veteran, plays here a character named "Antonio Moreno," an obvious inside-joke referring to the handsome Vitagraph star of the same name.