The Squaw Man (1914).

Review #1245: The Squaw Man (1914).

Cast: 
Dustin Farnum (Capt. James Wynnegate / Jim Carston), Monroe Salisbury (Sir Henry, Earl of Kerhill), Lillian St. Cyr (Nat-u-Ritch), Winifred Kingston (Lady Diana, Countess of Kerhill), 'Baby' Carmen De Rue (Hal), Joseph Singleton (Tab-y-wana), William Elmer (Cash Hawkins), Mrs. A.W. Filson (The Dowager Lady Elizabeth Kerhill), Haidee Fuller (Lady Mabel Wynnegate), Foster Knox (Sir John), Dick La Reno (Big Bill) Directed by Oscar Apfel and Cecil B. DeMille.

Review: 
Everyone and everything has their start somewhere, and this can especially prove true for films. This is the directorial debut of Cecil B. DeMille alongside the first feature length film made in Hollywood, California (with In Old California (1910) by D. W. Griffith being considered the earliest short made there). DeMille had been a stage actor since he was eighteen, having a love of the theater since childhood, and he dabbled in agency and as a playwright. The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company was created by DeMille alongside other businessmen (two of which who became crucial co-founders of studios in Hollywood such as Paramount) that would serve to produce movies over the decade, some of which directed by DeMille. This film is an adaptation of the play of the same name by Edwin Milton Royle, a Broadway play that had premiered in 1905 that proved fairly successful upon its initial run, lasting five months while having revivals four times in the next sixteen years. DeMille shifted filming from Arizona to California to get a proper Western look. Interestingly enough, DeMille would do two remakes of this material, doing another silent rendition in 1918 and a talking version in 1931. It isn't much of an understatement to say that the film is a curious little piece of its period in time, where film was only just evolving out of the woodwork of shorts and into experimentation. A key reason for films shifting production to California was to evade the patents held by Thomas Edison relating to the motion picture camera, to the point where his competitors made a licensing agreement with him in 1907 to stop the barrage of lawsuits. With that in mind, the film itself is merely a fairly standard, if not passable piece for entertainment. The historical value in this case makes it stick out from complete obscurity that would befall other kinds of Western films. It dwells on the outsider encountering the Old West and those who inhabit it, doing so with still pace that doesn't quite hit the mark for consistent drama. It definitely isn't the prime choice to begin viewing silent film, although it is good that this film survives for ready viewing where other films of its time did not. The film dwells a bit too much on standing around with their actors gesturing to each other before an intertitle shows up now and then, and while the romance between Farnum and St. Cyr certainly must've proved unique for the time, it mostly comes off as fleeting; its ending certainly isn't too surprising, either, although at least it doesn't plod itself along further than 74 minutes. For those who seek curiosities from yesteryear, this may prove more of a relic than a diamond in the rough, but at least it is something that one could see if only to wonder where a famed director like DeMille started from and evolved in his future productions.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.