The Drifter

After the success of TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR-ROOM, William Farnum must have figured that straight melodrama was a good sound genre. His next movie in the field was THE DRIFTER. Farnum plays a big, good-hearted, dangerous Quebecois who returns to his boyhood cabin after searching for his long-lost brother for decades, takes a shine to Phyllis Barrington (also from TEN NIGHTS), who's in love with Bruce Warren. Her father, Noah Beery, for whom Farnum and mysterious stranger Charles Sellon work, disapproves of the match, since Warren runs the competing logging company.

Thus we have all the elements of an old-fashioned meller except for the village idiot. Unfortunately, the movie was produced by cheapskate Willis Kent and directed by B-Western specialist William O'Connor early in his career, so Farnum gets to use a ridiculous stage accent and pace his line readings like he's barnstorming in a tank town. There's a certain insane charm to the movie as everyone takes the plot elements from Oliver Drake's script seriously, but it's assuredly not for the casual movie fan; if you want old-fashioned melodrama done interestingly, you'd do much better with Tod Slaughter's over-the-top cheapies.

I saw this motion picture on a fuzzy, snowy tv screen fifty years ago as a teen, as I did many B-westerns on a nightly triple-bill on an obscure UHF channel 22 on the so-called Sagebrush Theater in the 1960s emanating from Los Angeles. The Drifter was one of only a few that really impressed me at the time and stuck with me over the years. I think the movie captured me because of how stark but yet robust life seemed to be in that setting. I could somehow see myself in the midst of all those characters. I knew that Farnum's acting was highly eccentric, full of darting and delayed eye reactions, seemingly a silent-movie actor in a talking picture setting. The decades rolled by and I would often think of how I would like to revisit it again. Well, of course, now I have seen it again, somewhere about fifty years later. And I wasn't very impressed. Sure, it was fun to see it one more time, but if I hadn't seen it before all those years ago, I probably would turn away from it at the end today and never think about it again. I will offer a fairly generous 4-point rating, but can't really justify anything higher than that.

All I could think of was my late grandfather, who probably only saw 1 movie in his life (Mrs. Miniver). He would have truly loved this old antique of a movie. The director was obviously still stuck in the silent era as most of the actors emote something awful. However, there is something magic about William Farnum's performance. I read where his first job on stage was in a play with Edwin Booth and even with a fake French accent I could hear Booth standing right behind him. The story is a real throwback with everyone turning out to be the long lost brother, child, father in the end. As an antique, probably outdated the day it was released, I forgive it of its sins and really enjoyed watching it with a deep sense of how far we have come. I also think I spotted Margaret Hamilton, that old wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz in a small role of an angry mother throwing sticks at The Drifter. Any future watchers of this movie, please keep your eyes peeled for her. But I'd put 5 bucks on me being right!

French-accented William Farnum (as Drifter) trudges from the snowy mountains of Canada, to his valley hometown. Along the way, he partners up with old Charles Sellon (as Whitey), who has just finished a 20-year prison stay. In town, the men meet their stated objectives: to find work and women. Mr. Farnum and his pal get a jobs with the Canadian Lumber Company, run by Noah Berry (as John McNary), after Farnum rids the town of ruthless Russell Hopton (as Montana). Mr. Berry's pretty blonde daughter Phyllis Barrington (as Bonnie McNary) catches Farnum's eye, but she is seeing business rival Bruce Warren (as Paul LaTour).

Farnum, a huge silent film star beginning with "The Spoilers" (1914), uses techniques from that medium, and stage experience; he's interesting, at least, in this unsuccessful picture. "The Drifter" suffers from some distracting technical flaws, also. Of the supporting cast, Mr. Sellon outperforms the reliable brother of Wallace Berry. Mr. Hopton is good, also; in one of the film's better scenes, Farnum shoots him at Church.

*** The Drifter (1932) William O'Connor ~ William Farnum, Noah Berry, Phyllis Barrington

This obscure public domain film takes one back to the days of logging camps.

The Drifter is a Frenchman of limited vocabulary but a beeg heart. The plot has unusual twists with a little tragedy, a little comedy, a little romance, and some action thrown in here and there. Although it is somewhat slow moving and has practically no music, the movie kept me interested and wondering what would happen to all these emotive characters. The Drifter is known to everyone as such, but who is he really? One thing is for sure, he really holds the film together and gives it a genuine, homespun feeling. William Farnum has tremendous stage presence. When he's on screen, the shot is about him. For those who don't mind a primitive sound film, it's a gem. It's a B-movie with the heart of an A-movie.