Dir. John Ford
40 Minutes
USA
1923
Starring: Tom Mix, Kathleen Key, Frank Campeau, Eugene Pallatte, Will Walling
***1/2/*****
Version viewed is roughly forty minutes and comes from a Czech film archive (intertitles are in Czech with subtitles, though maddeningly two frames of a handwritten letter are not, though based on context one can easily surmise its contents). Chunks of the film are lost, and the film ends with the marvelous subtitle of "the end we have for now".Â
Beautifully shot Ford silent chilly western. Michael Dane (played by Tom Mix as opposed to his usual Harry Carey) heads North to Canada where his brother (the favorite of his doting mother) has struck gold. However, upon arriving he discovers that his brother has been murdered and his partner has been sentenced to the terrifying Death Trail (where nobody returns). To make matters worse, Michael inadvertently gives food to the charged man, and for aiding and abetting a criminal is also sentenced to the same fate. But the dastardly Cameron McDonald (Frank Campeau, wearing some fantastic tiny tinted rectangle framed glasses) is behind the action with a gun that fires itself, eager to claim the gold for himself.Â
The film has some terrific sequences, especially a tense centerpiece where McDonald tries to get Michael to sign over assets to him while waiting for another one of his gun tricks to fulfill its promise. The cuts between the three (Michael, McDonald, gun) are fantastic in their balance and rhythm, and more memorable than the more routine "saving the girl" sequence that functions as the climax to this version (which works, even though Michael does not particularly succeed as much as he presumably does in the completed version). The locations are lovingly portrayed, the cold and desolate atmosphere perfectly conveyed, and frames are full of information and small detail making it clear how much style and energy Ford has even in his early years.
Viewed on July 11th, 2020
Part of an ongoing John Ford Project with notes from selected films.