The Big Chance

Open up with Al Alt, dancing instructor, coming in on a train with a bunch of showgirls and the backer of the show, Maryland.

An outlaw on the run assumes the identity of a dead man. When in his new identity he finds himself elected the mayor of a small town, he decides to go straight.

It's cattlemen versus sheepmen and Trigger Gargan appears to be the leader of the gang causing the trouble. But unknown to Ranger Tex Lawrence, the respected town citizen Barrow is the boss and is tipping off the gang as to the Ranger's activities.

Mickey and the kids befriend a couple of tramps. But when the tramps are accused of stealing, Mickey and Hambone find themselves trying to expose who they think is the real crook: a doctor in a spooky house.

Tex and Shorty ride into Cinco Valley, a gold rich area terrorized by marauders ostensibly lead by one Pablo. Tex, however, recognizes Blackie, whose boss is Bannister, an American. Suspecting that Bannister and his henchmen are trying to drive the settlers off their potentially valuable land by posing as Mexican banditos, Tex convinces Pablo to help him set a trap for the marauders.

Mickey Rooney -- credited as McGuire, as he would be through the run of the series -- inducts a new member into the gang, tries to put little brother Billy Barty to bed for a nap, and wins a basketball game against Stinky Davis' team in this episode of the series.

Bill travels to a new state after the outlaw Scarface saves him from a lynch mob. There he takes a job on the Barton ranch and joins in the fight against gang leader Larkin. Finding a wounded Scarface he helps him recover. Arrested by Larkin's stooge Sheriff, and with another lynch mob after him, he once again needs Scarface's help.

A U.S. marshal is sent to investigate a gang that is stealing horses from the cavalry.

Tex has been sent to investigate the theft of government provisions along the border. Kildare is the leader of the outlaw gang and has his men posing as Indians. He has already killed the incoming Marshal and assumed his identity. When Tex asks too many questons, he plans to get rid of him also.

A cowboy comes to the aid of a lady rancher threatened by Mexican bandits who believe there is a treasure buried on her land.

A female bail-bond broker and her partner help an accused embezzler prove his innocence. Having the body of the embezzler's late business partner pop up doesn't help matters.

Reporter Patsy Reynolds and photographer Eddie Porter are assigned to interview John Foster, head of the Emmerson Foundation regarding a listening device the organization is working on. Foster evades them and they to the lab to see Professor Reynolds, the real inventor. Soon, they are involved in several shootings, blueprints that change hands several times, a corpse in their car that appears and disappears a few times, the loss of their jobs and several people who either think they are killers or candidates for being killed.

A cowboy helps a pretty young woman and her father in their fight against land-grabbers who are trying to swindle them out of their cattle ranch.

Four-part documentary (each part of which was also available as a short subject) relating to films and other customs of the 1910s and 1920s.