Dir. John Ford
54 Minutes
USA
1917
Starring: Harry Carey, Molly Malone, L.M. Wells, Vester Pegg
**1/2/*****
Version watched is a little over 53 minutes.Â
Slight early John Ford western that is most likely only of note because of his involvement. Simple narrative has ranch hand Cheyenne Harry (frequent Ford collaborator Harry Carey) in love and aching to marry young Helen Clayton, who is being pursued by the wealthy Eugene Thornton. Much to the surprise of Harry and Helen's father, the girl skips town to New York with the slick magnet where things take a turn for the worse.Â
Ford keeps the picture moderately entertaining, with simple set-ups but some absolutely beautiful location shots. The characters on screen take the events of the narrative a bit too seriously, and the middle section where the cowboys discover Helen has scarpered becomes borderline comedic in their reactions. The film has a weird tonal balance, and at times it is difficult to see exactly what Ford wanted to accomplish with this material. The big brawl climax has some some of the energy that had been missing from the sequences that precede it, and perhaps the broadness of this sequence is a tell of how to approach other big moments. Has some interest as an early Ford work (and is the second earliest surviving film after Straight Shooting), but not much beyond that.
Viewed on July 11th, 2020
Part of an ongoing John Ford Project with notes from selected films.