Heroes of the West (1932) is a UniversalPre-Codemovie serial that depicts the dangers and thrills of building a transcontinental railroad. This was the 82nd serial (and the 14th serial with sound) to be released by Universal. It was remade in 1938 as Flaming Frontiers (serial).
John Blaine – helped by his teenaged son and daughter, Noah and Ann – work to build a section of a transcontinental railroad "through the heart of the wild and wooly west."[2] Their section threads through Wyoming territory, dangerously close to hostile Indians. In addition to tribulations inherent in the Old West, work is hindered by crooked foreman Rance Judd, who is "secretly in the pay of a rival contractor and aims to make Blaine lose his government railroad contract by fouling up construction in any way he can" with help from his henchmen Butch Gore, Bart Eaton, and Buckskin Joe. Blaine is aided by a group of men also working on the railroad: surveyor Tom Crosby, scout Noah Blaine, and rail crew leader Bart Eaton. Together, our heroes must battle skullduggery from Judd's henchmen, stagecoach problems, saloon brawls, horse stampedes, train robberies,[2] Indian attacks, and other perils "to complete the line on time."
As is typical in serial films, each episode ends on a cliff-hanger. For example: after a tremendous fight in an old trapper's cabin, the cabin catches on fire and burns down with our heroes still inside; however, the next episode shows how they escaped the fire through a secret tunnel in the cabin floor.[2]
