The Squaw Man

The Squaw Man may be best remembered as the first picture directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and the first made in Hollywood, then a convenient wilderness. It's a rather inglorious debut on both counts, and nowadays is perhaps most interesting as an example of the early western feature.

In pioneer westerns of the 20s and 30s the main theme was usually the exploration of the unclaimed west, but in the 1910s the most common set-up was of a civilized easterner heading to an already-settled but still unruly west. This is the case in Griffith westerns like The Battle of Elderbrush Gulch (1913), as well as later features by DeMille such as The Virginian (1914) and A Romance of the Redwoods (1917). It's worth bearing in mind that, in this early part of the twentieth century the "old" west would have been a fairly recent memory, and the western was then more a lesson in geography than history. It's also rather apt given the circumstances of production – companies from the east going out west – and probably also the reason why they are called westerns and rather than being some sub-genre of the historical feature.

While the outsider in westerns of this period was typically a lady or gentleman of New York or some other east coast city, the titular squaw man is an Englishman. There are a few establishing scenes set in England, with a plot regarding an embezzlement from an orphan's fund that is very reminiscent of Griffith's biograph shorts. This is not surprising, as Griffith took his themes from the American stage where he began his career, and The Squaw Man is based on a play. The trouble is, Griffith was a master at making these theatrical stories cinematic, whereas the adaptation of The Squaw Man is rather flat and weak. The plot takes bizarre, improbable and pointless turns, sometimes getting bogged down in subplot and at other points zipping ahead making the narrative incomprehensible at times.

As noted this was Cecil B. DeMille's debut as director, although this is perhaps misleading. It was co-directed by Oscar Apfel, who had already made two-dozen shorts for Edison and Pathe. Accounts of the production state that Apfel handled the technical side of things, whereas DeMille coached the actors. DeMille may therefore be responsible for some of the fairly decent naturalistic acting on display here, although there are some lapses into appalling pantomime. There are some DeMille style attempts to photograph the imagination, with double exposures showing the hero dreaming of home, one of which is very effective, with a picture in a magazine morphing into the woman he has left behind. There also seem to be some experiments with lighting going on with some contrasting brightness and dimness in interiors, perhaps a forerunner of the Rembrandt lighting that would soon become a DeMille trademark. It is of course very difficult to accurately attribute ideas, although DeMille is also credited as "picturizer" (i.e. screenwriter) and producer.

In spite of these meagre marks of quality, as a whole The Squaw Man lacks excitement and real drama. In comparison DeMille's first feature as solo director, The Virginian, is a far more solid production, and although made only a few months after The Squaw Man it is light years ahead in style.

... And the first feature-length movie made in Los Angeles. A British former soldier named James (Dustin Farnum) is blamed when a lot of money is embezzled from the military widows and orphans fund. It was actually James's cousin Henry (Monroe Salisbury), but James gets the blame and goes on the run to the US, while Henry inherits an ancestral title and becomes nobility. James ends up in Wyoming, where he buys a ranch, falls for native girl Nat-U-Rich (Lillian St. Cyr), and runs into trouble with local bad guy Cash Hawkins (William Elmer). Also featuring Winifred Kingston, Baby Carmen De Rue, Joseph Singleton, Raymond Hatton, and Hal Roach.

This is as creaky as one would expect, with primitive filming techniques (most scenes are framed like a stage play, and are usually one continuous shot), and wild pantomime acting. Farnum and St. Cyr are a bit thicker in the middle than most screen stars. My favorite moments include one scene where someone falls off the side of a mountain (a bad dummy is used to humorous effect) and the people who rush to help him do so by rubbing his hands; a scene in which our hero is overcome by the poisonous gases of the "Death Hole"; and a scene where a small child is placed on a horse, given a pistol, and then urged to shoot, which the kid does, seemingly into the back of the horse's head (thank goodness for blanks).

A western with dull if bleak scenery and costumes that look mighty strange (though doubtless the real items), this is an interesting example of early film-making, but one that will delight mainly critics and historians rather than the general movie fan.

The dated, old-hat story is a little difficult to follow at first because the two cousins, James and Henry, are understandably lookalikes, and neither actor has the skills to differentiate himself. In fact, it's hard to believe that stolid Dustin Farnum had a big stage reputation as he displays little charisma or ability here. However, he doubtless improved because he made another forty movies before retiring in 1926. (He married his leading lady here, Winifred Kingston, in 1924).

The rest of the players run rings around Farnum in "The Squaw Man". Red Wing is reasonably effective as the real heroine of the piece, but it's personable Dick LaReno, here making his first of 81 movies, who really impresses as our hero's foreman—not the sheriff who is played by either Dick Palace or W.H. Stratton. And I think that's Art Acord playing the deputy. It's hard to tell because there are no close-ups. Each scene is filmed with either a static long shot or medium group shot. And there is virtually no camera movement apart from a few slight pans.

Cecil Blount DeMille, a stage actor dabbling in playwriting, was able to secure through his mother's connections an association with Jesse Lasky, a successful Broadway vaudeville producer. The partnership proved beneficial for both in 1912, when the two rolled out a couple of financially very successful plays in New York City. DeMille, though, was tiring of the theatrical business and was catching the cinematic fever in 1913. With Lasky, Lasky's brother-in-law Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn) and several East Coast businessmen, DeMille became part of the newly-formed Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. The production company would concentrate on longer feature films, with its first one scheduled to be an adapted 1905 play called "The Squaw Man."

DeMille, who never directed a movie before, was assigned the directorship duties alongside veteran director Oscar Apfel. Together with camera/lighting/set designer crews and actors, the pair journeyed to Flagstaff, Arizona, to shoot the Western. After a few exterior shots in the mountains, however, they soon realized the small town was inferior to the look they wanted. They then boarded the train for Los Angeles, a growing community of filmmakers.

DeMille realized the perfect spot to produce "The Squaw Man" was the nearby town of Hollywood. He rented a barn on the corner of Selma and Vine Streets, converting it into a simple film studio for interior shots and editing (Paramount Pictures moved the barn in 1926 and is now the Hollywood Heritage Museum). Although not the first movie made in Hollywood--that honor goes to D. W. Griffith's 1910 short "In Old California, --"The Squaw Man" became the first feature film to be produced in Hollywood, 74 minutes in length.

DeMille was a quick learner while observing Apfel directing the cast and crew. He began to assume more directorial duties as the filming went into the final third week.

Before the production, the Lasky Company realized they needed a big star to attract viewers to "The Squaw Man." Lasky offered popular stage actor Dustin Farnum either up to $5,000 to be in the film, a pretty good chunk of money in those days, or a percentage of the Lasky Company (reportedly 25%). The actor took the money, but ultimately gave up millions since the small studio would eventually become a big part of the future mega- movie company Paramount Pictures.

While the movie crew was busily traveling and filming "The Squaw Man," Goldfish (Goldwyn) was criss-crossing the country selling the rights of the movie to exhibitors before it was released to the public. This became the first time a motion picture rights had been pre-sold before its production had been completed.

"The Squaw Man" made a ton of money for Lasky's company, profiting almost $250,000 in 1914. DeMille would go on and direct two remakes of the story, in 1918 and a sound movie in 1931.

"The Squaw Man" (1914) co-directed by Cecil B. DeMille is considered the first full-length feature film from Hollywood.

In spite of it's historical significance, it is poorly directed, which can only be expected from the first effort in full-length film making.

The story revolves around a chivalrous British officer who decides to take the blame for his cousin's embezzlement and journeys to the American West to start a new life on a cattle ranch.

It is, quite simply boring and primitively executed and produced. Cecil B. DeMille would go on to direct some of early Hollywood's most genre-defining features such as his epic take on "The Ten Commandments" (1956), which I highly recommend anyone experiencing, but I only recommend his debut feature for film historians and enthusiasts.