Walter Long Movies
Brutish-looking actor Walter Long entered films in 1909 after brief stage experience. He became a valued member of D.W. Griffith's stock company, excelling in roles calling for strong-arm villainy and glowering menace. In Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915), Long played Gus, the renegade Negro whose lustful pursuit of virginal Mae Marsh results in the girl's suicidal leap from a precipice; while in the same director's Intolerance, Long was "the musketeer of the slums," a gangster boss whose murder motivates the climactic race to the rescue. He persisted in villainy into the 1920s, providing a formidable foe to such silent heroes as Rudolph Valentino and William Boyd. Despite his on-screen skullduggery, Long enjoyed a reputation as a prince of a fellow; his courtesy and good manners were particularly prized by the leading ladies whom Long's screen characters frequently imperiled. In talkies, Long proved to have a low, guttural voice that matched his movie image perfectly, and he continued unabated to portray thugs, pluguglies and lowlifes. Though many of his talkie roles were bit parts, he was well served in the films of Laurel and Hardy, playing a prison cell-block leader in Pardon Us (1931), a drink-sodden prizefighter in Any Old Port (1932), a vengeful gangster ("I'll break off yer legs and wrap 'em around yer neck") in Going Bye Bye (1934), a shanghaiing sea captain in The Live Ghost (1934), and a Mexican bandido in Pick a Star (1937). During World War II, the fifty-plus Walter Long served as a lieutenant colonel in the Army; upon his discharge, he returned to the stage, where he remained active until his retirement in 1950. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1910
Long before his epic Birth of a Nation, D.W.Griffith was turning out such one-reel Biograph Civil War melodramas as The Fugitive. The story focuses on two soldiers, one a Yankee, the other a Confederate. When the Yank shoots down the Southerner, he is targeted for arrest and execution. Ironically, he is saved by the mother of the man he has killed. As was customary in Griffith's Civil War films, there were no heroes or villains: the "heavy" of the piece was the War itself. Dorothy Davenport and Eddie Dillon were among the featured players, in The Fugitive, which was partially lensed on location in Fishkill, New York. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1912
This exciting drama from D.W. Griffith was a remake of his earlier The Lonedale Operator. Grace (Dorothy Bernard) is a telegraph operator for the train line. She is attracted to her co-worker Jack. When a bank sends $2000 on the train that is to be picked up at the telegraph office, a couple of tramps who were riding on the train break into the telegraph office and attempt to get into the strong-box. Grace puts a bullet in the key-hole of the door and hits it with a hammer and scissors to try to scare the tramps off, but they pull the strongbox out the door. She telegraphs for help and then runs outside to try to stop the robbery. The tramps kidnap her and make their escape on a railroad hand-car. However, her friend Jack races to the rescue with a train. Griffith features Bernard as a strong career-woman who works hard at her job. This film shows that after four years cranking out one or two films a week, Griffith had become a talented director. The "traveling shots" of the train speeding to the rescue, as well as quick editing, made this a suspenseful film for its day. ~ Bruce Calvert, All Movie Guide
- 1913
Inspired by several stage plays and a couple of sensationalistic Danish white slavery" films, Traffic in Souls became one of the most talked about and, at $25,000, the most expensive feature film of its day. Although representing himself as an enemy of the pervasive "traffic in souls," the capture and enslavement of innocent immigrant girls right off the boat, wealthy "reformer" William Trubus (William Welsh) is actually the head of the ring, operating from an office bearing the legend: "International Purity and Reform League." On the floor below, the Go-Between (Howard Crampton) receives money from brothel operators and is in constant contact with his boss though such modern inventions as a dictagraph and a telegraphic pen. A couple of Swedish immigrants (Flora Nason and Vera Hansey, are snatched from their waiting brother (William Powers by one of Trubus' henchmen and brought to a bogus employment agency bearing a temporary sign that promises "Swenska Talas Her" ("Swedish spoken here"). But Officer Burke (Matt Moore) has become suspicious and raids the premises. Meanwhile, Lorna (Ethel Grandin), the sister of Burke's girlfriend Mary (Jane Gail), has been drugged and kidnapped by Bradshaw (William Cavanaugh), yet another of Trubus' white slavers. After desperately searching for her sister, Mary asks that Burke be assigned to solve her kidnapping. The plucky girl manages to get herself the job of telephone operator at the fake reform league and learns enough for the police to raid the brothel where Lorna is being held. While Trubus is celebrating the betrothal of his daughter Alice (Irene Wallace) to a scion of society, the police burst in and arrest him. Released on bail, Trubus is almost lynched by the angry mob, while Mary and Burke announces their engagement. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1914
While busy with The Birth of a Nation, director D.W. Griffith began a small-scale contemporary drama called The Mother and the Law. The film was designed as an indictment against professional do-gooders who take it upon themselves to "reform" the poor. One victim of this misguided treatment is played by Mae Marsh, whose baby is claimed by the moral uplifters when her husband (Bobby Harron) proves unable to provide for his family. The film's dramatic highpoints include a violent capital vs. labor clash, and a climactic race for life as the husband is slated for execution for a crime he did not commit. If this all sounds familiar, it is because an abbreviated version of The Mother and the Law was incorporated into Griffith's four-part spectacular Intolerance; it was later released as a separate feature, with newly shot scenes added. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, (more)
Supervised by D.W. Griffith, Martyrs of the Alamo was directed by Griffith's loyal but considerably less inspired assistant William "Christy" Cabanne. The film never lags in its action sequences, notably the climactic siege of the Alamo. Only in the dramatic scenes does the film cry out for Griffith's masterful touch. Of interest is the casting of Griffith "regulars" Walter Long, Tom Wilson, Alfred Paget and John Dillon as, respectively, General Santa Anna, Sam Houston, Jim Bowie and Colonel Travis. Comedy relief is in the hands of Augustus Carney, the once-popular star of the "Alkali Ike" comedies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1915
Allan Dwan was the producer-screenwriter and D.W. Griffith the supervising director of the Northwoods melodrama Jordan is a Hard Road. Based on a novel by Sir Gilbert Parker, the film cast Dorothy Gish as the daughter of reformed bandit Ralph Lewis. Without ever tipping her off to his true identity, the ex-bandit devotes himself to protecting the girl and providing for her well-being. The film concludes with a "judge not lest ye be judged" gracenote, with the symbolic march of all the film's characters towards the River Jordan. Excellent location photography is but one of the pluses of this Grade-A character study. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The most successful and artistically advanced film of its time, The Birth of a Nation has also sparked protests, riots, and divisiveness since its first release. The film tells the story of the Civil War and its aftermath, as seen through the eyes of two families. The Stonemans hail from the North, the Camerons from the South. When war breaks out, the Stonemans cast their lot with the Union, while the Camerons are loyal to Dixie. After the war, Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall), distressed that his beloved south is now under the rule of blacks and carpetbaggers, organizes several like-minded Southerners into a secret vigilante group called the Ku Klux Klan. When Cameron's beloved younger sister Flora (Mae Marsh) leaps to her death rather than surrender to the lustful advances of renegade slave Gus (Walter Long), the Klan wages war on the new Northern-inspired government and ultimately restores "order" to the South. In the original prints, Griffith suggested that the black population be shipped to Liberia, citing Abraham Lincoln as the inspiration for this ethnic cleansing. Showings of Birth of a Nation were picketed and boycotted from the start, and as recently as 1995, Turner Classic Movies cancelled a showing of a restored print in the wake of the racial tensions around the O.J. Simpson trial verdict. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper, (more)
- 1915
Railroad worker Beppo Puccini (Charles West) seeks to please his young daughter Marie by proposing to Bianca Pastorell (Signe Auen), whom the child adores. Bianca however misunderstands and assumes Puccini is joking with her. The crushed Puccini observes his foreman, Sam Coggini (Tom Wilson), in a close conversation with Bianca, and leaps to the conclusion that he is a rival for her affection. Puccini then attempts to murder Coggini by planting a bomb outside Bianca's house. But when he discovers that Coggini is actually her brother, he ends his lethal plot and is able to win the hand of Bianca, who at last becomes a mother to little Marie. Note actress Signe Auen, who soon thereafter changed her name to Seena Owen; after a noteworthy career acting in silents, she became a successful writer for talkies, including director Edward G. Ulmer's memorable 1947 concert fest Carnegie Hall. 15/2rl ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles H. West, Signe Auen, (more)
- 1915
San Francisco's Chinatown is the scene for this two-reel melodrama of crime and miscegenation. The cruel saloonkeeper Pat Gallagher (Walter Long) wants to marry off his daughter Maggie (Billie West) to a gangster, but she runs away and hides in a neighborhood shop. There she is persuaded to marry its Chinese owner Hop Woo (Eugene Pallette), only to be mistreated by him. Two decades later he decides to sell their daughter Ah Woo (Signe Auen) into slavery, but she is rescued by her brother and his friend Jack Donovan (Tom Wilson) who marries Ah Woo. The despairing Maggie takes her own life, and Ah Woo and her brother go to live with Donovan on his ranch. Note actress Signe Auen, who later changed her name to Seena Owen and worked throughout the silent era, capping her career by portraying the monstrous Queen Regina in Erich von Stroheim's final (and unfinished) silent Queen Kelly. 15/2rl ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Signe Auen, Eugene Pallette, (more)
Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of a poor but happily married couple are disrupted by the misguided interference of a "social reform" group. A series of unfortunate circumstances culminates in the husband's being sentenced to the gallows, a fate averted by a nick-of-time rescue engineered by his wife. In the wake of the protests attending the racist content of The Birth of a Nation, Griffith wanted to demonstrate the dangers of intolerance. The Mother and the Law filled the bill to some extent, but it just wasn't "big" enough to suit his purposes. Thus, using The Mother and the Law as merely the base of the film, Griffith added three more plotlines and expanded his cinematic thesis to epic proportions. The four separate stories of Intolerance are symbolically linked by Lillian Gish as the Woman Who Rocks the Cradle ("uniter of the here and hereafter"). The "Modern Story" is essentially The Mother and the Law; the "French Story" details the persecution of the Huguenots by Catherine de Medici (Josephine Crowell); the "Biblical Story" relates the last days of Jesus Christ (Howard Gaye); and the "Babylonian Story" concerns the defeat of King Belshazzar (Alfred Paget) by the hordes of Cyrus the Persian (George Siegmann).
Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, (more)
- 1916
Instead of marrying her childhood sweetheart, Charles Brown (William Hinckley), Cora (Norma Talmadge) has married the more well-heeled Arthur Vincent (Eugene Pallette). But Vincent, the son of a bank president, neglects Cora and their two children in favor of dancer Jane Courtenay (Jewel Carmen). Cora spends a lot of time with her sister and her sister's husband (who happens to be Charles' brother) and wishes she had chosen a better spouse. Meanwhile, Vincent goes from bad to worse -- Jane convinces him to team up with some of her friends and rob his father's bank. The crooks get away with this only temporarily -- eventually they are discovered, and most of them, including Vincent and Jane, are killed in the ensuing chase. So finally Cora is free to wed the man she should have married in the first place. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norma Talmadge, Eugene Pallette, (more)
A sweeping chronicle of the life and death of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orlean, this epic stands as one of director Cecil B. DeMille's finest works and offers film buffs a fascinating look into the early years of one of Hollywood's greats. The story of the valiant French martyr is framed by the modern tale of a British soldier who, while fighting WW I, digs up a rusted 15th century sword. Soon afterward he falls asleep and begins dreaming that he is a soldier in Joan's army. With a cast of 1,400 extras, full-sized sets, spectacular battle scenes and hand-tinted prints, DeMille spared no expense with his epic and though the $300,000 seems paltry by today's filmmaking standards, it was a fortune in 1916. It was money well spent for Joan the Woman stand's times test as an exceptional example of the epic film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Lillian Gish shows almost as much spunk in this picture as her hoydenish sister Dorothy Gish usually did. Daphne La Tour (Gish), is the daughter of a destitute French nobleman in the early 18th century. Because he is the favorite at the king's court, Philip de Mornay (Elliot Dexter) can probably have any woman he wants, but he likes Daphne's audacity. So he orders his men to kidnap her and take her to the home of Franchette, a popular madam (Lucile Young). But before he can fetch her, he is forced to flee and is captured by pirates. Meanwhile, Franchette's place is overtaken by soldiers who are rounding up women to send to Louisiana, where wives are sorely needed. Daphne is among the young ladies captured, but the ship they are on is attacked by the pirates. Daphne helps save the day for the Frenchmen, and as a result, she saves Philip's life. Although she has been sold to Jamie D'Arcy (Walter Long), she nevertheless manages to marry Philip when they reach Louisiana. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Marfa (Lillian Gish), a Russian peasant girl, is in love with Jan (Frank Bennett). However, her uncle and aunt (A.D. Sears and Pearl Elmore) want her to marry an older, wealthy man. Colonel Griegoff (Walter Long) wants her, but Marfa will have nothing to do with him. When he tries to have his way with her, she knocks him out with a club and runs off. Along with her uncle and aunt, she emigrates to America. Jan, who wants to make his fortune, is on the same ship. They all settle in the Russian district of Los Angeles. Once again, Marfa's pushy relatives try to force her into an arranged marriage, but they are foiled by Jan and the police. A quick glance at this plot shows why Lillian Gish preferred to downplay many of the films she made with directors other than D.W. Griffith. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
When New England schoolmarm Faith Miller (Anita King) comes West to inspect a mine she has bought, she discovers it is a fake. But she finds a savior in the rough cow town in which she has landed -- Jim Ralston (Wallace Reid). With the help of the deputy sheriff, he "salts" the mine to trick the crooked promoter into buying it back from Faith. But there is more trouble afoot -- the sheriff is murdered by two outlaws and Jim is accused of the crime. Jim is set to be hung when the real killer admits to the dirty deed. The posse rounds up all the bad guys including arch villain Henry Slade (Tully Marshall) and all is well with Faith and Jim. This was one of Wallace Reid's lesser programmers. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
With the exception of Joan the Woman, which contained a "contemporary" subplot, The Woman God Forgot was Cecil B. DeMille's first all-out historical spectacular. The story is set in Mexico during the reign of Emperor Montezuma (Raymond Hatton). Upon his arrival on Mexican soil, Spanish conquistador Cortez (Hobart Bosworth) sends Captain Alvarado (Wallace Reid) to the imperial palace with a demand for Montezuma's surrender. The emperor immediately puts Alvarado in chains, but he is rescued by Montezuma's daughter Tecza (Geraldine Farrar), who has fallen in love with the young Spaniard. This does not rest well with Tecza's parent-appointed fiance Guatemoco (Theodore Kosloff), who prepares to sacrifice Alvarado to the Aztec gods. To save her sweetheart, Tecza leads Cortez' army into battle against her own father. The price of her devotion to Alvarado is the total destruction of the Aztec empire, but rather than die herself (which would seem to be the logical denouement given the sequence of events), Tecza is permitted to live happily onward with her one true love. Though she was not exactly sylphlike, opera diva Geraldine Farrar wore her revealing costumes quite well, establishing a precedent for such later underdressed DeMille leading ladies as Gloria Swanson, Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Reportedly, director Cecil B. DeMille and leading lady Mary Pickford did not see eye to eye during the making of this lavish Western melodrama filmed on location among the giant redwoods in northern California. "Little Mary" actually plays a female her own age this time (maybe that was the trouble) as a young woman whose father is killed in an Indian raid. Pickford falls for a dashing outlaw (Elliott Dexter), whom she later frees after his inevitable capture by persuading the sheriff (Walter Long) that she is pregnant. Amazingly, the ruse works and they are allowed to plan a future together in freedom. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1917
In an unsuccessful attempt to break out of her vampire mold, Theda Bara plays a sweet young thing in this picture adapted from the 1880 novel Moths by Ouida. Bara's character, Vere Herbert, lives with her wicked mother, Lady Dolly (Marie Curtis), who is living in sin with Lord Jura (Glen White). Although Vere is in love with an opera singer, Lucien Correze (Harry Hilliard), Lady Dolly convinces her that marrying the dissolute Prince Zouroff (Walter Law) will save her father's honor. But the Prince makes her miserable and insists on having his mistress, Jeanne deSonnaz (Caille Torrez), live with them. Vere won't stands for this and packs up her nurse (Alice Gale) to go live at the Prince's Siberian estate. Lucien wants Vere to divorce the Prince and marry him. However, a duel between the Prince and Lord Jura ends up killing both men, making this a moot point, and Lucien and Vera are free to marry. The novel's original ending, in which Lucien and Vere go live together without the benefit of a marriage certificate would have been more typical of Bara's style. But she was trying very hard to play the good girl in this picture (even though she apparently wouldn't give up the heavy kohl eyeliner, as stills from the film illustrate). This effort was poorly received (in reality, the thirty-something Bara was too old for this part, anyway), and the fact that the United States entered World War I the week it was released didn't help, either. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
It would be easy to assume that combining Mary Pickford's charm with director Cecil B. DeMille's penchant for the spectacular would create an exceptional piece of work. But judging from this picture, and the one made before it -- Romance of the Redwoods -- that just wasn't the case. The bottom line was that both Pickford and DeMille wanted control over their productions and neither of them were truly capable of the kind of compromise required by collaboration. As a result, their work together suffered. America had recently entered World War I when this picture was made, and it was one of innumerable patriotic films produced around this time. It begins in 1914 with American Angela Moore (Pickford) and her two foreign suitors -- a German, Karl Von Austreim (Jack Holt) and a Frenchman, Count Jules de Destin (Raymond Hatton). Angela prefers Karl, but when war breaks out in Europe, both men go to serve their countries. Eventually Angela, too, sails for France, but her ship is sunk by a U-boat (although not named, the ship is presumed to be the Lusitania). She is saved, but when she arrives at her destination, she finds her aunt dead, and the family chateau transformed into a hospital for those wounded in battle. The Germans arrive to fight, rape and pillage. Angela and Karl are reunited when, unaware of her identity, he tries to attack her. She forgives him this transgression, but when the Germans discover her sending messages to the French, the commander (Herbert Bosworth) orders her shot. At this, Karl denounces his country and he is ordered to be shot, too. The pair are saved by a French shell which blows up the Germans at an opportune moment, and after an all-night battle, they are found by the Allies, sleeping at the foot of a cross. Although Karl is arrested, Angela is able to have him freed and they leave for the U.S. together. This mediocre film was overshadowed by the far superior Poor Little Rich Girl, which was released earlier in the year. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Cowboy hero William S. Hart tries something altogether different in this film. He plays Hairpin Harry Dutton, a burglar who is sent to prison. He spends his incarceration dreaming of his pretty young wife (Juanita Hansen) and son and making firm resolutions for the day he gets released. But when he finally gets out, his plans are dashed -- his friend (Walter Long) informs him that his wife has divorced him. Not only that -- she has married the policeman who arrested him. Angrily, the former burglar plans to seek revenge, but when he sees his son, he realizes his actions would be pointless and wrong. So, leaving his ex-wife with her new husband, he starts off on a new life, taking his son with him. While well-received, this film did not encourage Hart to abandon his Western roots very often. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
This light comedy was based on Anthony Hope's novel Captain Dieppe. Robert Warwick plays the captain, an international agent and diplomatic freelancer who is having differences with his latest employers, a small Italian principality. They refuse to pay him until he gives them a crucial report and he refuses to hand over the report until they pay him. Ultimately he leaves, and the minister sends secret service man Guillamo Sevier (Walter Long) after him. But Dieppe eludes Sevier and stays in Fieramondi, as the guest of the Count (Juan de la Cruz, otherwise known as James Cruze, who directed the picture). The Count and his wife (Winifred Greenwood) have been arguing over a certain Paul Sharp (Howard Gaye), and are currently estranged. Dieppe sees Lucia Bonavia D'Orano (Helene Chadwick), a cousin of the Count's by marriage, and believes her to be the Countess. He falls in love with her on sight, and when he finds out that the Countess owes a gambling debt to Sharp, he steals the I.O.U. He figures that this will bring the Count and Countess back together again, and that he is making a big romantic sacrifice. When he discovers the woman he loves isn't the Countess at all, he is overjoyed. He finally gets the money owed him, along with winning the girl. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
This D.W. Griffith picture has the distinction of being, arguably, the worst film that the director ever made. For starters, it's a western -- not one of Griffith's best subjects. And most of the characters are two-dimensional clichés. Rosy Nell (Eugenie Besserer) is a dance-hall woman of the Old West. She has been paying for the education of her daughter (Carol Dempster) without telling the girl how she's been earning the money. When the daughter comes West for a surprise visit, she's met at the station by chivalrous bandit Alvarez (Richard Barthelmess) and a pair of miners. Meanwhile, Nell has gotten into a fight with another woman from the dance hall, Spasm Sal (Rhea Haines). Sal has a heart attack in the middle of the fight, and dies. Nell is accused of murdering her, but is saved from being lynched by Alvarez. King Bagley (Walter Long, in a typically villainous role), the dance hall's proprietor, leads an attack on Nell's cabin, but Alvarez uses himself and his notoriety as a distraction by turning himself in. He escapes from imprisonment, however, with the help of his fiery mistress Chiquita (Clarine Seymour), while Nell's daughter winds up with prospector John Randolph (Ralph Graves). Poor as it was, this was one of Dempster's few films for Griffith in which she was properly cast. On the other hand, Richard Barthelmess couldn't have been a poorer choice for Alvarez. Ironically, Dorothy Gish had recommended an actor to Griffith who probably would have been perfect: Rudolph Valentino. But Griffith mistakenly believed that foreign types were not appealing to women(!). Some critics of the day suspected that Griffith wasn't the only director on this film. They were right -- his assistant Elmer Clifton was practically co-director. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
