Tue 3 Aug 2010
A Western Movie Review by Walter Albert: THE NIGHT HORSEMEN (1921).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Silent films , Western movies[4] Comments
THE NIGHT HORSEMEN. Fox Film Corporation, 1921. Tom Mix, Mae Hopkins, Joseph Bennett, Sid Jordan, Bert Sprotte, Cap Anderson. Based on the novel The Night Horseman, by Max Brand (Putnam, 1920). Director: Lynn Reynolds. Shown at Cinecon 27, Hollywood CA, September 1993.
Tom Mix plays Whistlin’ Dan Barry in this filming of a Max Brand novel, a somewhat bizarre tale of a cowpoke who follows the flight of the geese and whose eyes turn yellow when he’s angry.
His code would keep him away from the dying rancher who raised him and drive him to kill the rancher’s son whom he seems to love like a brother. Dan crosses the meanest man in the county by killing his brother, and their battle, along with Dan’s reconciliation with the rancher’s son and the gal who loves him, made for an exciting, satisfying wind-up.
August 4th, 2010 at 12:36 am
The book is available to read on-line or download at Manybooks and Project Gutenberg. It’s the second in the Dan Barry series (UNTAMED, THE NIGHT HORSEMAN, DAN BARRY’S DAUGHTER)about the feral gunman and sometime outlaw.
I haven’t seen this one but from Walter’s review and others it seems fairly faithful to the book albeit with a somewhat more upbeat ending and overall feel than Brand’s fairly dark novel.
Mix did quite a few Brand titles including DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (a talkie from later in his career) and JUST TONY (based on a Brand novel) two of his better known films.
The Mix films are surprisingly good, with solid scripts, high production values, great stunts, and Mix’s undoubted screen charisma. Watching him on screen you suddenly understand why he was the highest paid performer of his day.
August 4th, 2010 at 3:00 am
David
Of the Dan Barry books, you missed THE SEVENTH MAN (1921), in which he dies. He does not appear in DAN BARRY’S DAUGHTER (1924).
After doing some investigating, I’ve come up with only three movies based on the Dan Barry books:
THE UNTAMED (1920) with Tom Mix, based on the book of the same name (1919).
THE NIGHT HORSEMEN (1921) with Tom Mix, which Walter reviewed.
FAIR WARNING (1931) with George O’Brien, based on the THE UNTAMED.
Considering the first two and all of their other pairings, Tom Mix and Max Brand seemed to go together perfectly, two legendary figures, evenly matched.
August 4th, 2010 at 3:04 am
I originally included this photo of Tom Mix along with the review, but I finally decided it was too large. No sense wasting it, though, so here it is:
August 4th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
The Dan Barry books are awfully dark so it is no surprise they didn’t do as well as some of Brand’s other works on screen. Brand always worked classical themes into his books, and Barry is a tragic and epic figure who would likely be confusing to many western film goers expecting a standard western tale from Brand.
The Barry books are perhaps the most literate and purest expression of Brand’s theme and obsessions, classics of their kind, and fascinating to read, but anyone expecting a standard western must find Barry, his horse and wolf, and his feral violent nature a bit of a shock, a bit as if one of the heroes of Greek literature had strapped on a pair of six shooters and wandered into a western setting replete with Homeric themes and tragic outcome.
While the plots probably transferred to the screen more or less intact I would be surprised if the dark atmosphere of the books found its way into the adaptations. Frankly they’d be pretty grim and dark now.