AllMovie

Second-generation star Noah Beery, Jr. and 1934 Wampas Baby Diane Duval starred in this 12 chapter serial version of Peter B. Kyne's The Tie That Binds. Beery and Duval played the buckskin clad offspring of William Desmond, a construction company owner assigned to build a portion of the transcontinental railroad system through Wyoming. There are hostile Indians (the always threatening Frank Lackteen among them), rival construction companies and sundry other dangers that impede the progress of the railroad. But Noah and Diane, with the assistance of engineer Onslow Stevens, a smart collie, and the United States Cavalry manage to outwit all opponents before the final chapter, "End of the Trail." Interestingly, Universal's great serial team of the 1910s, Francis Ford and Grace Cunard, returned to play small supporting roles in Heroes of the West. Diane Duval changed her name to Jacqueline Wells later that year and would become Julie Bishop in the 1940s. Heroes of the West itself would be remade by Universal in 1938 as Flaming Frontiers, this time with John Archer (father of Anne), Eleanor Hansen and Johnny Mack Brown in the roles formerly played by Beery, Jr., Duval and Stevens.