The Squaw's Love

A muddled, confusing drama due in equal parts to the poor quality of the print available online, a lack of intertitles, and some unusually lacklustre direction from D. W. Griffith.

An Indian love poem in images. Squaw finds herself with her beloved in the woods. They play chasing each other. The man asks Squaw's hand to the head of the tribe, who does not consent. Squaw's lover insists and is forcibly stopped by other members of the tribe. The two lovers find themselves in the woods but are reached and divided. Squaw falls into the river and his beloved arrives on a canoe to get her. In this movie there is an intimate natural poetic of the image and Squaw's beloved is the stereotype of the savior hero.

Squaw's Love, The (1911)

*** (out of 4)

Pretty entertaining Western from Griffith has Gray Fox (Alfred Paget) getting kicked out of his tribe so Wild Flower (Mabel Normand) follows him through the woods, which upsets Silver Fawn (Claire McDowell). The two women end up fighting and Wild Flower falls into the river when Gray Fox must race to her rescue. Silent fans will certainly be entertained by this film even though I'm sure modern viewers will be looking at their watches even though it runs under 17-minutes. I think fans of Griffith will know that he was often hesitant when it came to using title cards so it's rather unclear why Gray Fox gets kicked out of his tribe but I'm guessing it was for a good reason as the other Indians really beat the pulp out of him before sending him on his way. Overall this is a fairly pleasant short even with the lack of information as Normand delivers a fine performance and clearly steals the film. She's certainly the best thing it has going but Paget is also pretty good as is McDowell. This film might also be of interest to some history buffs as it features some real Algonquins tribe members including Dark Cloud. He made a few films for Griffith around this period and seeing an actual Indian playing a part was quite rare in these days. In terms of story there's nothing too ground-breaking here and it's easy to say this isn't one of Griffith's greatest films but it remains entertaining enough as long as you don't take it too serious.

This offering from Griffith at the peak of his Biograph period is pretty much a tossed-off potboiler. It's forbidden love among the Indians as Dark Cloud -- a genuine Algonquin chief with a real movie resume; he also modeled for Frederick Remington -- and Mary Pickford run away to be together. Everyone but Mary overacts -- I suppose that's all right, since that was the popular view of Indians. The costumes are also strictly out of the melodrama costumer's, with everyone wearing feathers on their heads, including a full Comanche head dress for the chief.

Griffith took his crew a bit far afield to film this piece in some pretty riverine territory near Cuddlesback, New York. Even today, it's a pleasantly rustic area.