A Romance of the Redwoods

I didn't know what to make of this Mary Pickford film. I've seen quite a few of Mary's films by now, and this one was just strange. There was no chemistry between Mary's character and the thief she falls in love with, no foundation for that to happen at all. The story was implausible; why would the girl stick around after she found out the uncle was dead? She should have turned right on home again. Instead she compromises her own honor by trying to save the villain, and then she tricks the law in order to escape with her "love". Poor script, to say the least. Not on par with Mary's other films.

The western picture is almost as old as the cinema itself, and the genre and the medium to some extent developed side by side. Here, in 1917, as the feature film was becoming more the norm than a novelty, we see the western becoming more than just a genre in itself and becoming the backdrop for a romance.

Although parts of this story stretch credibility a little (this is DeMille, after all), the strength of the director and his long-time collaborator screenwriter Jeanie Macpherson in storytelling is evident. As was by now customary with his pictures, he economically introduces each character with a title giving their name followed by a brief shot which tells us everything we need to know. For DeMille this era was the peak of his visual storytelling abilities. One technique he uses is a quick shot of something happening out of a character's sight, yet which it is implied they can hear. For example, Elliot Dexter puts his ear to the ground, we cut to a close-up of horses' hooves, and we understand. It is not always so effective – for example the scene where Mary Pickford is startled by a wolf howling in the forest. From the way the sequence is edited it is not clear whether she is hearing the wolf or seeing it as well, even though we assume the former because it makes more sense.

One thing that sets Romance of the Redwoods apart from DeMille's previous effort, the spectacular Joan the Woman, is the frequent use of close-ups and multiple angles. This reflects changes going on in the cinematic form around the time, as more freedom was given to camera placement, and the idea of placing the audience inside the action gained currency. In the case of this picture, it of course enhances the ability to tell stories with images, but it also adds emotional and psychological weight to the scenes that need it. DeMille uses the soon-to-be standard trick of keeping the camera back for the purely expository stuff, then moving in close when a dialogue between two characters enters a deeper, more emotional level. It says a lot for his cinematic method that he manages to sustain a western with very little action, mostly through an air of menace, which inevitably gives way to romance.

This was Mary Pickford's first film with DeMille, and you can see she benefits from the time and space he allows his performers to act. Pickford was far more interesting before she began playing children, and here she is convincing as a youngster on the cusp of adulthood. Her most memorable moment in the film must surely be when she discovers Dexter's bandit mask. Horrified at first, she slowly lifts the rag to her own face – the scene is like a distant ancestor of Lorraine Bracco being given the gun to hide in Goodfellas. Elliot Dexter is adequate as the male lead, even if he does look more like a Dickensian villain than anything out of a western.

For all its merits, Romance of the Redwoods is a worthy yet somewhat bland entry in the DeMille canon. It is full of nice touches but lacks a real punch. What's more, the premise of the innocent easterner heading west was growing a little tired. It would be a few years yet before pioneer westerns The Covered Wagon and The Iron Horse would arrive to revitalise the genre.

Jenny left home for meeting her uncle. She arrived at the town where she and her uncle were determined to see each other. But there was not her uncle, the strange man who was a burglar appeared in front of her. His name is Black Brown. Black Brown let her know that her uncle was killed by arrows of apaches. Then Brown pretended to become her uncle at the moment, Jenny told other people that he was her uncle. His mind got weaker(I am unsure), owing to her innocent personality. He swore to not do something bad to Jenny. Brown, however, broke a vow, stole gold, and then purchased the doll to give Jenny a present. Sheriff and other people came, were determined to strangle him. Brown confessed the truth that he was not Jenny's uncle, requested her to save him. Jenny requested Sheriff or one man. After all, Brown was not strangled. Then Jenny and Brown left the town together.

Black Brown was quite hot in the film. It was cute that his heart became weaker in front of Jenny. Jenny was boyish, she targeted someone(She did not know the man was Black Brown at that time) with the gun. Eliott Dexter looked a lot younger than his age, forty-six or seven in the film.

Romance Of The Redwoods was the first of two films that Mary Pickford did for Cecil B. DeMille. Pickford came as part of the package when the Famous-Players Company merged with the Jesse L. Lasky Picture Corporation to form Famous-Players-Lasky which eventually was Paramount. Adolph Zukor asked DeMille to do a film with her and DeMille wanted a war film. Zukor insisted on a western first and we got Romance Of The Redwoods.

Both DeMille and Pickford came from the tradition of the Victorian Theater and in fact when DeMille was an actor he appeared with Pickford on stage in one production. Now she was a big star and rising and usually had her own way in terms of crew, script, and directing. That was not how DeMille worked and he got his way.

Romance Of The Redwoods sadly is terribly dated and could use some restoration. Mary plays a girl gone west to live with her uncle in the California gold fields. But her uncle was killed by Indians. Notorious road agent Elliott Dexter finds the uncle's body and swaps clothes and identity with him as he's looking to get out of the outlaw game as folks are getting tired of the lack of law and order and are ready to form a vigilante committee.

Mary, America's Sweetheart, faces a challenge in that she knows Dexter is not her uncle, but where else can a good girl go in those wild mining camps and keep her virtue. As for Dexter he's impressed with her virtue and the inevitable happens.

As another reviewer said, the ending is quite unbelievable but it was in keeping with the Pickford image and the mores of the times. Still it's sadly dated and probably won't find favor with current audiences.

Now i enter the most difficult time in my backward cinema trip because my library has no more DVD for 1917 and before (except Charlot but the clown never makes me laugh!)... So it takes time to pick and find the movie but when i read this title and the story, i was at once motivated: I love forest and those big Redwoods are an amazing view: when i visited Frisco, i touched them over the bay and it was a fantastic moment! So i watched this movie to check if they were there as it's about gold rush California and indeed, the locations of that Cavaleras county seems real and so the scenes are with the cabin are incredible!

But as soon as the movie begins, it's also clear that the movie has much more to offer: simply, you feel that the movie has a solid, fun story, that the director knows how to tell it even without sound and for sure that the cast is excellent to play it! It's not a surprise to see that C B Demille has become a Hollywood legend as Mary Pickford whom i didn't recognize from Mark of Zorro 3 years later...

This movie is fun because we have all the cliches of the Old West already put in 1917 and for those poor empty and blind weepers who laments that women have always been portrayed as feeble, well, they should watch it and they would understand that they lack practice...

This fiery woman who can bring peace to this crude men's world is totally modern and instead of doing stupid reboots, sequels, CGI effects should be used to color this old black and white movie classic!