Ranson is an arrogant U.S. Cavalryman who's been thrown in the brig one too many times. With everyone at camp buzzing about a notorious criminal called "The Red Rider", Ranson brags that he could easily hold up a stagecoach with nothing more than a pair of pruning shears. As a practical joke, he dresses as the Red Rider the next day and proceeds to do just that, but stops short of taking the coach's payroll. When he returns to camp, Ranson learns that the payroll actually has been stolen, and all evidence points to him as the culprit! With the hangman setting up his noose, Ranson must find the real Red Rider and prove his innocence -- before it's too late!
Based on a 1902 book by Richard Harding Davis, Ranson's Folly stars Richard "DIck" Barthelmess, one of the most popular leading men of the silent era. Famed Russian actress Alla Nazimova, a family friend, helped Barthelmess break into motion pictures, when he co-starred with her in War Brides (1916) and came to the attention of D.W. Griffith. In 1919 he rose to fame starring in the classic Broken Blossoms and again in 1920's Way Down East, which features the iconic scene where he leaps over ice floes to save the heroine. In 1921 he achieved widespread success with Tol'able David, starring in a role many critics consider his best. Barthelmess would deliver powerful performances in The Patent Leather Kid (1927), The Noose (1928), The Dawn Patrol (1930) and Only Angels Have Wings (1939) before retiring to Long Island to live off the proceeds of his successful real estate investments. His co-star, Dorothy Mackaill, was a former Ziegfeld Follies girl. She became a silent star in movies such as The Man Who Came Back (1924), Chickie (1925) and The Dancer Of Paris (1926). Ranson's Folly was considered a major work at the time, having been previously adapted into a Broadway play in 1904 and short films by Thomas Edison in 1910 and 1915.