This 12-chapter Western serial, filmed by Republic Pictures, was the directorial debut of William Witney, who continued directing serials including Dick Tracey Returns, G-Men vs. the Black Dragon, Drums of Fu Manchu, and others. After Republic, he went on to direct movies for American International Pictures and Associated Producers Incorporated as well as television (he directed episodes of The Wild Wild West series). Quentin Tarantino called him “one of the greatest action directors in the history of the business.” (The New Beverly Cinema)
In the Valley of the Cliffhangers, author Jack Mathis alludes to what might have been, storywise:
Given the story for screen adaptation, writers Barry Shipman and Winston Miller perceived Evart’s [Hal G. Evart] creation in a different and extraordinary light during their work on a novel first treatment in 1936 between November 21 and 24. Based on the premise of the painted stallion as a werehorse, the scripters envisioned a lycanthropic fantasy in which legend stated that the stallion–symbol of man–could be either horse or man and was impervious to bullets. The studio, however, decided against this whimsical approach, and following the Thanksgiving holiday Shipman and Miller wrote the final screenplay from an alternate scenario developed several months earlier by Morgan Cox and Ronald Davidson.
