Bad Buck of Santa Ynez

'Bad Buck' of Santa Ynez (1915)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent two-reeler has William S. Hart playing outlaw 'Bad Buck' Peters, a cold-blooded man who has tormented the people of Santa Ynez. The sheriff finally captures him but before they can hang him Peters heads off into the wilderness. Once he reaches freedom he meets a woman and her young daughter who is just about to bury her father. They plead with Peter to take care of them, which he agrees to do and once the girl gets bitten by a poisonous snake Peters must then select his freedom or risk it by returning to town for a doctor. BAD BUCK OF SANTA YNEZ has way too much happening in such a short amount of time and in the end there's just way too much melodrama that prevents the film from being better. The biggest problem is that the film asks us to believe that such a ruthless man would give up his freedom to help these women for no reason. It then seems even harder for us to believe that he would eventually fall for the two ladies so quickly. We've never given a reason why Peters would do this and it's not even in his character early on. When it does happen we're still not given any reason as to why he's changed his mind. Outside of this we've got a fairly good little Western that gets a major boost by the authentic locations and Hart's direction helps keep the film moving at a nice pace. At just around 24-minutes there aren't too many slow moments and it goes without saying that the legendary Hart was born to play a character like this. I also enjoyed Fanny Midgley as the mother and Thelma Salter as the child.

A two-reel Western number, featuring Wm. S. Hart in his familiar character as a bad man. The most dramatic scene is where the child of the nester's widow allows a rattlesnake to strike her on the bare leg. Thelma Salter proved herself a very brave little girl in this scene: to some the feature will be repulsive but it makes a fine example of Western realism. The desperado sucks the wound and then risks his life in going for a doctor. He is in fact mortally wounded in carrying out this action. A strongly realistic number. - The Moving Picture World, May 22, 1915