Sat 29 Aug 2009
A Western Movie Review by Walter Albert: THE DARKENING TRAIL (1915).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Silent films , Western movies[3] Comments
THE DARKENING TRAIL. Mutual Film Corp. 1915. William S. Hart, Enid Markey, George Fisher, Nona Thomas, Louise Glaum. William S. Hart, director; Thomas H. Ince, producer; written by C. Gardner Sullivan. Shown at Cinevent 41, Columbus OH, May 2009.
William S. Hart, in his third feature film, plays Yukon Ed, hopelessly in love with Ruby McGraw (Enid Markey), owner of the local saloon, who has refused his offer of marriage dozens of times.
When Jack Sturgess (George Fisher), fleeing from his father’s wrath after he has wronged and abandoned a woman he refuses to marry, arrives in the small Alaskan town, Ruby, seeing in him the knight in shining armor she’s been waiting for, takes up with him.
Yukon Ed, willing to give the newcomer a chance, but ever watchful for any wrong done to Ruby, is there when Ruby, gravely ill, is waiting for the doctor who will never come because Jack, after promising to bring him, detours for a dalliance with a dancehall girl.
The intertitle “Requiem of the Rain” announces the grim conclusion and captures the dark poetry of this striking film.
August 29th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I like William S. Hart because he’s not the usual good looking, well dressed cowboy singing on his horse. No, he’s homely, kind of ugly, and doesn’t sing a lick.
My wife’s father who was born in 1913 used to tell me about attending the silent movie theaters in Trenton, NJ. He and his kid friends used to call Hart, William Ass Hart.
August 29th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Kids said that? In what, the 1920s? Goodness.
August 29th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
You’d be surprised what kids said in the 20’s!
Hart pretty much invented the adult western, and if you have seen him in the farewell he did for the reissue of Tumbleweeds, had a lovely Shakesperian voice (he had been a Shakesperian actor). For all the hokum in his pictures there is a sense of realism there too. Harry Carey brought the same thing to his films — only an added sense of humor and folksy charm.