The Cradle of Courage

"Square" Kelly returns from the war. Before going off to fight, he had been in a gang of crooks (which includes his brother). Now, the gang wants him to lead them again. Kelly is about to give in, when he sees the light. He joins the police force and makes it his mission to bring the gang to justice.

This is a different vehicle for western star Hart, although it probably could have been done as a western with slight changes. It's a solid story, with plenty of interesting characters. Perhaps the most unusual portrayal is by Gertrude Claire, as Kelly's mother. Typically, one might think an ex-crook's mother would want him to reform. But noooooooooooo .... this dame is itchin' for him to pull the next job, and calls him yellow when he balks at rejoining the gang. She tosses him out of the house.

There is a so-so romantic subplot between Hart and Ann Little, who plays Rose, the "ward" of a crook (Tom Santschi). There is also a pretty good fistfight (with no doubles) between Hart and Santschi, and later, a shootout in the dark. Hart emotes a bit too much on occasion, which I've noticed in many of his films. But overall, he does his usual satisfactory job, and the rest of the cast is fine. There is one glaring error, at the beginning of the film. Hart, after getting off the boat in uniform, arrives at his house - and he still has his rifle!

William S. Hart plays one of his 'good bad man' roles, this time not in the wild west of the cattle ranges, but in the wild west of San Francisco. Hart gives one of his usual fine performances as he returns from World War One a hero and has to decide between his old life in a criminal gang and a new life as a cop. The morality is a lot more conflicted than usual, but he brings it off.

One of the things you might miss in this movie is Joseph August's breathtaking cinematography of the wild lands. San Francisco is a cinematic city, but we don't see much of it here, mostly in backdrops.

Not without interest though this is one of the lesser Hart films. Turn William S. Hart into a city cop, a cloth cap workman or Aztec Indian, and he loses his legendary westerner impact.

Troops, "men who had faced Boche steel" are disembarking at San Francisco after WW1 and among them is Hart as Sgt. Square Kelly of the 91st, one time burglar, and his officer friend who happens to be the son of the Police Lieutenant who had encountered our hero in his professional capacity.

Switch is Bill's white hair mother happens to be a cop hating Irish criminal matriarch who is all set for him to re-join Tom Santchi's gang. However the Lieutenant offers Bill a spot on the force. Santschi's ward Anne Little (co-star with Broncho Billy Anderson) slips him a note urging the straight and narrow.

When the tension between Hart's up bringing and his new righteous way of life has been settled, it's kind of lame. Instead of an Old Testament God, it's the hallowed US Army that stirs Bill's reverence here.

The Bay City setting is an effective background, also used in Hart's THE NARROW TRAIL but Lambert Hillyer's script and direction don't make this one of his star's best efforts. Cameraman Joe August, on the other hand, covers himself with glory, capturing Hart in the streetscapes and filming the shoot out in the dark room illuminated by muzzle flashes - is this the first time we see that? It turns up again again in George Bancroft's superior The MIGHTY ten years later, which this film intriguingly anticipates.