Spawn of the Desert

• 1923

• Watchlist

Louis King directed this minor William Fairbanks oater, in which the athletic star plays Duke Steele, a prospector whose life is saved by an elderly colleague, Silver Sleed (P. Dempsey Tabler). When his rescuer's wife and child are kidnapped by an evil dance-hall proprietor (Al Hart), Steele goes into action with a vengeance. Co-star P. Dempsey Tabler became the screen's second Tarzan, in The Son of Tarzan (1920). Needless to say, the middle-aged British Thespian was slightly miscast.