The Half-Breed

This wonderful early silent by pioneering director Allan Dwan shows him in full mastery of film style -- excellent use of landscape, of close-ups, of action montage. The performances are all good, especially Alma Reubens as the woman who loves Fairbanks but thinks she'll never get him. A very fine script by Anita Loos. Well worth seeing -- and now you can because the film has been restored.

Pretty heavy themes in this 1916 melodrama. I have just been rediscovering Fairbanks' early works and this one caught me by surprise. After watching silent films for almost 50 years, what a joy it is to see them digitally restored. A far cry from the fuzzy 8mm prints of my youth. If I had seen a musty out of focus truncated print of this film, I would have missed much of its joy. Thank you to all who worked so hard to bring this one back to all of us.

The Half-Breed (1916)

*** (out of 4)

A young Indian woman brings her newborn son to the home of a white man where she drops it off and shortly later kills herself. The baby, part white and part Indian, grows up to live a normal life but when his caretaker dies, the townspeople run him out. Soon he sees various racial injustice and pretty soon finds himself in the woods with another outcast.

THE HALF-BREED isn't the greatest film ever made but it's certainly an entertaining one that fans of silent cinema should enjoy. Douglas Fairbanks plays the title character and does a very good job with the role. Obviously the actor is very energetic but he manages to handle the small, quiet scenes just as well as any of the stuff that has him running around. The actor was very believable as the somewhat naive man who doesn't realize that people will hate him just because of his skin color.

The film's story isn't all that original and deals with the half-breed going up against a sheriff who just happens to be his real father, although neither one realizes it. The film features some terrific visuals and especially the scenes in the forest. There's a terrific climax where a fire breaks out and the movie ends on a very poetic note. The main reason to watch this film is certainly for Fairbanks and you have to wonder what his female fans in 1916 thought about his nearly nude entrance at the start of the picture.

I have been collecting silent films on DVD for over 20 years and it's very gratifying to see more titles from 1910-1920 become available on the home market. Case in point is this satisfying 1916 double bill from Kino Lorber starring Douglas Fairbanks 4 years before his breakthrough film, THE MARK OF ZORRO. I had known about THE HALF BREED for years thanks to a famous still of Doug in the briefest of loincloths. It was considered a lost film and I never expected to see it. The rediscovery of old movies and the restoration of them has come a long way since the turn of the century with THE HALF BREED and THE GOOD BAD MAN being 2 excellent examples. Both are collaborative efforts between The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, La Cinematique Francaise, and Lobster Films. The quality of the movie image is excellent and the musical scores by Donald Sosin are simple and effective.

THE HALF BREED tells the story of Lo Dorman whose Native American mother was abandoned by his white father resulting in her death. He then faces extreme ostracism from the townspeople of the small community he lives in. THE GOOD BAD MAN has him playing a Robin Hood like bandit named "Passing Through" who steals only what is needed and then gives it to those who need it most. Both films benefit from the presence of Sam De Grasse, Fairbanks' go to villain, who is nothing less than a silent film version of Alan Rickman. Both of these movies were helmed by Allan Dwan (1885-1981), a Canadian born director whose career spanned over 50 years and featured such titles as 2 Shirley Temple vehicles (HEIDI, REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM) and the John Wayne classic, THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA. His silent films are now making a comeback with the recent release of 3 Gloria Swanson films (ZAZA, MANHANDLED, STAGE STRUCK).

Kino Lorber has recently released a number of Paramount silents including 2 classic W. C. Fields comedies (IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME, RUNNING WILD) and the epic Western THE COVERED WAGON. Two more titles on the horizon include a newly restored version of Josef von Sternberg's THE LAST COMMAND with Emil Jannings and the one I've been waiting on, OLD IRONSIDES with Charles Farrell & Esther Ralston. That just leaves THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK, Valentino's THE SHEIK, and Erich von Stroheim's THE WEDDING MARCH from the old VHS set of almost 30 years ago to be released on DVD/Blu-Ray. The 1923 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and WINGS from that set have already been given deluxe editions... For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

THE HALF-BREED is an incredibly underrated silent drama and I am so glad it recently got the gorgeous restoration it deserves. Photographed and acted beautifully, this is one of the best Hollywood productions of its time and still worth watching today.

That THE HALF-BREED came after the incredibly racist THE BIRTH OF A NATION is fascinating. The movie is not without its dated elements, but it is far more progressive in its call for tolerance and indictment of the white man's treatment of Native Americans than you would expect in a movie from 1916.

Doug Fairbanks is an actor more noted for his charisma and derring-do than his thespian chops. However, he does an admirable turn as Lo, the half-Native American, half-white outcast. This character is more somber than his usual roles, though no less active and principled. Sam De Grasse plays the villain as he often did for Fairbanks and he does well with his usual underplaying style.

However, the best performances come courtesy of Jewel Carmen and Alma Reubens. These two women get the meatiest roles in the movie: a flirtatious yet Machiavellian debutante flirting with scandal when she pursues Lo, and a world-weary con-woman on the run from the law and her own sordid past. Both bring great depth to these parts, neither fitting fully into the ingenue/vamp dichotomy you see in a lot of American films of the 1910s.

While THE BLACK PIRATE is my favorite Fairbanks movie, THE HALF-BREED is a close second. I absolutely enjoy watching this beautifully made movie and would recommend it to silent movie mavens.