The Valley of the Giants

This 1919 film was shot on location in northern California and is famous for the accident that star Wallace Reid suffered just before filming began. The railroad car he and crew members were riding in fell off the track and tumbled down a hill into a creek. Reid suffered a gash to the back of his skull and had glass embedded in his arm as well as a back strain. The onsite doctor gave him morphine to kill the pain and continued to administer morphine throughout the shoot. By the end of filming, Reid was addicted.

The plot has Reid returning to Sequoia, where is father is being squeezed out of the timberland by a ruthless competitor. Complications arise when Reid takes an interest in the competitor's niece (Grace Darmond).

Since the competitor owns the railroad (which is used to transport timber out of the valley) Reid reveals plans to build a rival railroad ... an idea the competitor does not like.

Along with the drama and romance we get several standout action sequences, including a big fight between Reid and a thug (Jack Hoxie), a runaway train with Reid running along the top railroad cars piled high with logs to reach the brake, and a near riot between rival rail gangs.

This digital print from Gosfilmofond was gifted to Library of Congress in 2010 and is in surprisingly good shape. Co-stars include Ralph Lewis as the Colonel and Charles Ogle as the father, as well as Noah Beery, William Brunton, Guy Oliver and Alice Terry (briefly seen as the mother).

Reid is terrific and Darmond is very pretty. This was also an important early feature film for 1920s cowboy star Jack Hoxie. The location shooting is stunning.

This is one of the films that the Russian film industry saved and a copy was turned over to the Library of Congress in the latter part of 2010. This was one of ten films that have thus far be returned to The Library of Congress. According to reports in the Washington Post there may be close to 200 silents that will in time find there way back to circulation. It seems that the Russians care more about the early art of film then Hollywood has. They cared enough to preserve titles that we have not taken care of. The first ten films includes titles directed by James Cruze, George Fitmaurice, Reginald Barker, Victor Fleming, Albert Austin, Edward F. Cline and Val Paul. They feature such stars as Betty Compson, Thomas Meigham, Renee Adore, Wallace Berry, Wallace Reid, Richard Dix, Lois Wilson, Harry Carrey and Jackie Coogan! In time we may have a chance to see an important list of films that have been lost to history until now.

This film is remembered, if at all, as the one on which Wallace Reid was injured and given heroin. The addiction and the brutal schedule Paramount kept its top male star to killed him by 1923. Thanks to a kickstarter production by Ed Lorusso, I was able to see this formerly missing film today, and found it a fine story with a dynamite score by David Drazin.

Wallace Reid returns with an engineering degree to the town where his father, Charles Ogle, has been the top logger for forty years, and his mother is buried. Things have changed. Competitor Ralph Lewis owns the other half of the forest, the local rail line, and is squeezing a nearly blind Ogle into bankruptcy. He also has a gang of malicious thugs ready to maim and kill for ready cash, including Jack Hoxie and Noah Beery. Lewis also has a niece, Grace Darmond, who is loyal to him, but who grew up with Reid; they agree to be friends.

The movie is well directed by James Cruze, and the print is in very good shape, although the modern viewer may find the simplicity of the camera set-ups under Frank Urson a little dull. There are a couple of highlight sequences. In the former, Lewis, Miss Darmond, and associates are on a runaway caboose, and it's up to Reid to rescue them. In the latter, the final confrontation between the forces of Lewis' thugs and Reid's work gang during a night time shoot builds up to a tremendous fight.

The film is helped along by some fine location shooting in northern California and Oregon. The result is a handsome, engaging movie that should make fans of silent films very happy.