Retracing our steps now to 1911, and turning from the north to the west we find the call of the wild is equally evident in films like The Squaw's Love in which Mabel Normand grapples with rivals and foes on land and water.
The Alpha DVD entitled "Lost Treasures of the West" includes this short as an extra. Although it's not in bad condition, it's rather dull. D.W. Griffith's direction is not only static and uninspired, but downright clumsy. Also featured on this same DVD is a Leo Maloney 1923 short, Lost, Strayed or Stolen, which is in such bad condition, it's totally unwatchable.
Fortunately, the main attraction on the disc, Desert Man (1934), is worth attention. It presents plenty of action and the personable hero is our longtime friend, Hal Taliaferro, always a very competent actor - even when here posing as Wally Wales. The villain, would you believe, is none other than Yakima Canutt? Already, I'm sure, your interest quickens. Mine too! The heroine, a lovely girl named Peggy Djarling (sic), made only one other movie, also with Wally and Yak, and also written and directed by Robert Emmett Tansey and released just one month previously, a 3-reeler entitled Carrying the Mail. I'll keep watching!
The Alpha DVD entitled "Lost Treasures of the West" includes this short as an extra. Although it's not in bad condition, it's rather dull. D.W. Griffith's direction is not only static and uninspired, but downright clumsy. Also featured on this same DVD is a Leo Maloney 1923 short, Lost, Strayed or Stolen, which is in such bad condition, it's totally unwatchable.
Fortunately, the main attraction on the disc, Desert Man (1934), is worth attention. It presents plenty of action and the personable hero is our longtime friend, Hal Taliaferro, always a very competent actor - even when here posing as Wally Wales. The villain, would you believe, is none other than Yakima Canutt? Already, I'm sure, your interest quickens. Mine too! The heroine, a lovely girl named Peggy Djarling (sic), made only one other movie, also with Wally and Yak, and also written and directed by Robert Emmett Tansey and released just one month previously, a 3-reeler entitled Carrying the Mail. I'll keep watching!