|
The Indian
(1909) United States of America
B&W : Short film
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: (unknown)
The Selig Polyscope Company, Incorporated, production; distributed by The Selig Polyscope Company, Incorporated. / Produced by William N. Selig. / Released 16 December 1909. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama: Western.
Synopsis: [From The Moving Picture World]? It is the afternoon day of a hard day’s drive, and we see two settlers ambuscaded, as best they can, behind their “prairie schooner,” with their wives and children. Indians are circling about on ponies, gradually drawing closer to the little party and firing as they approach. The two settlers are assisted by Wahnatee, the redskin who is friendly with the whites. A shot is fired and one of the children falls mortally wounded. Seeing this, Burton, one of the settlers, tells Wahnatee to take Mrs. Burton and his child to a distant hill and that he will cover their retreat. The Indian conducts the half-fainting woman and child to a place of safety, then returns to find both settlers dead. With the calm stolidity of his race’s nature, Wahnatee bemoans the fate of the two massacred men, then returns to guard the woman and child entrusted to his care. The dawn of the next day. The Indian hears the beat of horses’ hoofs. He listens. Closer and closer come the riders, until at last he recognizes a band of cowboys. At once he wakes Mrs. Burton then rushes in the direction of the cowboys and informs them of what has happened. Now, among these cowpunchers are two men who play important roles in our story. One is termed Black Bart because of his ungovernable temper and ugly demeanor; the other is a big, good-natured individual named Jack; and both being enamored of Mrs. Burton, the feeling between them is not over-friendly. The Indian has never forgotten the trust placed in him by his white brother Burton. He knows that Jack is honesty itself and that Black Bart is treacherous and brutal. Well, one day in old Dutch Pete’s saloon, Bart sees Wahnatee sitting by the stove. In his half-drunken mood he begins to taunt the Indian, but Wahnatee remains dignified and imperturbable. About this time Jack enters the saloon. Bart invites him to take a drink. Jack refuses. Words ensue into a quarrel, and as Jack strikes his enemy to the floor, the latter draws his gun and fires wounding Jack. He then rushes from the saloon, closely followed by the Indian. We see a fierce combat on horseback. Both men are desperate and slash unmercifully at each other with their bowie knives. The fatal blow is struck and the white man lies dead at the feet of the other, whom he had taunted for weeks. Wahnatee tells Jack that his enemy lives no more, and then, with his usual dignity predominating, he slowly sinks to the floor as his soul wanders onward and upward to the “happy hunting grounds.”
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 8 January 1910, page 16] A strongly dramatic picture, breathing the rugged, semi-savage spirit of the plains, the Indians and the cowboys. There is a fight with Indians, resulting in several deaths, protection by a friendly Indian, and toward the last a battle on horseback with bowie knives, between the friendly Indian and a rough, unreasonable cowboy. The white man falls dead, and the Indian dies soon afterward. The strength of the picture lies in its dramatic situations and its graphic representations of the wild, unrestrained life of the open plains. Like others of Selig’s Western dramas, it is lifelike, and suggestive in its general effects. Photographically the picture is clear and the acting is convincing.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 22 January 2025.
References: MovPicWorld-19100108 p. 16 : Website-IMDb.
|
