La tigresse

Leonore Ulric is Rose, a French-Canadian girl who was rescued from drowning after her father died. She quickly recovers her health in this movie, and falls in love with Theodore von Eltz, a surveyor out in the mountains for the railroad. Before they can do anything about it, he must deal with someone named Lantry. This consists of accosting him in his tent. They struggle, he pulls a gun, and when it goes off, he dies. von Eltz flees, but Mountie Forrest Stanley pursues. Can he keep his freedom, even with the help of his love?

Sidney Franklin directs this Northwesterner from a play by Willard Mack, produced by Belasco. Miss Ulric -- who would be briefly married to Sidney Blackmer -- originated the role on stage. Most of it is well-run potboiler, with the outdoor shots handled with his usual grace by cameraman Charles Rosher. There's also a fine suspense sequence when von Eltz is hiding in the cellar and Stanley is in the room with the trapdoor above.... however I'm confounded by why he didn't use the other entry, to outside, an get away.

Miss Ulric had made her first film appearance in 1911, but her career seems to have been mainly on the stage, often for Belasco. She is credited with less than 25 screen appearances through 1947, the same year she appeared in a classical repertory company at the Belasco Theater. She died in 1970, aged 78.

The copy I looked at was only 61 minutes long; almost 20 minutes trimmed from the original release. Let's hope that a more complete version turns up.