La bête enchaînée

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.

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!

Romance of the Redwoods is an early western feature film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille if stars Mary Pickford as Jenny Lawrence. And Elliott Dexter as 'Black' Brown. The story line goes as Jenny is sent west to live with her uncle after the death of her father. In the meantime her uncle has been killed by Indians and Black Brown as assumed his identity They both make it to Strawberry Flats a gold rush town. Jenny makes it to Blacks cabin and knows he is not her uncle well they fall in love and the law catches up to Black the rest is to be watched.

It is good to see Pickford play a real woman in a film and she really makes this movie worth watching. Also Dexter does a good job of acting as does the rest of the ensemble. The real downfall of the film is the implausibility of the story line along with an unbelievable ending. It is nice to see Big Basin State Park used for the exterior shots this is one of the loveliest places in all of California, Grade C

It sounds as though the production history of "A Romance of the Redwoods" is more interesting than the film itself, which is an unexceptional Western for the most part. Star Mary Pickford had only just wrapped production on what would turn out to be the most pivotal picture in her career, "The Poor Little Rich Girl" (1917), which helped cement her being type cast in childhood roles and introduced her most fruitful creative collaboration, with scenarist Francis Marion. Along with the subsequent WWI-era propaganda of "The Little American," "A Romance of the Redwoods" was one of two films she made with director Cecil B. DeMille. His career at this point was probably even more in flux, as he was experimenting with various genres at that point--before hitting on a formula of sex dramedies and, later, spectacles such as "The Ten Commandments" films (1923 and 1956). So, he made sensationalist psychological dramas, opera adaptations, historical epics and Westerns, among others. A director who would earn the reputation of being dictatorial, he had and would never again work with a star of Pickford's caliber. With her own tendency to demand creative input or control, this becomes a more compelling film to view when considering it as being pulled in sometimes divergent directions from two stars in formation. And that's not even to mention the role of frequent DeMille collaborator and another important female screenwriter, Jeanie Macpherson.

Similar to what the American film industry had recently done itself, the film begins with the uprooting from the East (had it been Fort Lee, New Jersey, the former capital of American filmdom, I suppose it would've been too on the nose), to move to California (and the Forest Moon of Endor). Whether the picture's nominal gold rush or the reality of the Edison Trust, the results are likewise gunplay and general lawlessness. Anyways, the story begins with a dual focus on Pickford's travels West and the Western trope of the "good bad man," who, in this case, steals her uncle's identity. William S. Hart played these bandit types who are reformed by a good, pointedly Christian and civilized woman better than anyone around this time in his own vehicles. The same plot emerges when the stagecoach robber and identity thief of this one meets his adopted niece, although it's complicated by the quasi-incestuous nature of this narrative and the queasiness one might feel towards the romantic storyline of Pickford's child-woman character, whom her fake uncle gifts a child's doll in the same scene he proclaims his love for her. The age gap between her character and another suitor seems even more stark.

Regardless, while DeMille attempts some grandiose views early on, including the stereotypical attack by Native Americans, a racial slur in the title cards included, a couple shots of the gigantic redwoods beside the diminutive Pickford, and there is some decent low-key lighting effects here and there, including from the home's fireplace (although not quite as impressive methinks as in DeMille's prior Western, "The Virginian" (1914), let alone the landmark "The Cheat" (1915)), the picture becomes increasingly one of intimate and extended takes of "America's Sweetheart." Playing the good bad man and lacking the subtle intricacies of Hart's expressive face, as well as lighter pull from always-second-fiddle co-stars in his vehicles, Elliott Dexter didn't really stand a chance at sustaining an honest dual focus in this one. He couldn't even always prevent his hair from obscuring a view of his face from the camera lens, let alone compete with the naturalistic acting of and brightness of the star of "the girl with the golden curls." She always seems to be involved in some bit of business and to be fully inhabiting her character--never merely just sitting or standing in stillness in some dated theatrical way of seeming to try to convey thought or internal conflict. She acts circles around everyone else in this one.

Inevitably, Dexter's character will convert to her rule. The rest of the townsmen, though, eventually break into their home and lock her in the barn as they attempt to play out the climax by themselves. Having none of that, Pickford employs some artifice to regain control of the scene. As another male character implores in his surrender, "Boys - I reckon when twenty men have been fooled by one small woman -- they'd better take their medicine!" And so did DeMille and the rest of his usual collaborators, and, not surprisingly, after two films with Pickford, he never worked with as big of a star again (albeit, there've never been many quite as big). This is Pickford's film.

(Note: Streamed from the 39th Pordenone Silent Film Festival, from a digitized 35mm, tinted/toned print from the George Eastman House. While scratchy, the picture quality was good.)

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.