Review by Roger Carpenter
As so often has happened over the years, silent films have been lost to time, or survive only in very poor or often incomplete prints. Because these films weren’t thought of as “art” many were scrapped due to high storage costs, recycled for their silver content, or were destroyed by fire due to their high combustibility. Others were resold to budget distribution companies, recut and retitled, and released as totally different films. Thus was the fate of many Douglas Fairbanks movies from his time at Triangle Pictures. The Half-Breed is a classic case in point.
Based upon a short story and rewritten for the screen by its author in collaboration with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes novelist and pioneering screenwriter Anita Loos, The Half-Breed tells the story of a baby abandoned by his white father and Native American mother and raised by an elderly man who lives deep in the woods. The baby, named Lo (Douglas Fairbanks), comes to town when racist white men kick him out of his home because “Indians can’t own property in this county!” At first he seems to experience kindness when a preacher invites him into church as an example of tolerance, but soon enough even the preacher exposes his own racist tendencies when Lo shows an interest in the preacher’s daughter. Nellie (Jewel Carmen), is the pretty daughter with lots of suitors, including the local sheriff (Sam De Grasse) and an aristocratic young man called Jack Brace (George Beranger). Things get testy as Nellie seems to choose the half-breed.
The Half-Breed is an entertaining film which kept my interest throughout its 73-minute runtime. Part western, part romantic drama, the film is interesting in that it seems to address racism head-on, as in the scene when the preacher uses Lo as a “stage prop” for his sermonizing on intolerance. There is some irony as well, as in a scene where the sheriff remarks to Lo that, “Not all white men are the same,” to which Lo smiles, shakes his head, and walks away laughing, as if thinking to himself, “You’ve got that right, buster.” Perhaps inevitably, though, the film exposes itself towards the end when Nellie chooses the white aristocrat and Lo engages with a Mexican girl, herself a half-breed. Birds of a feather, and all that….
Perhaps as entertaining as the film itself is the story behind its restoration. The film premiered in 1916 and flopped. It was quickly sold off to another distribution company who recut the film and substituted dialogue cards, shortening it down to a two-reeler along the way. The film was long known to exist in three different forms: one in a 16 MM version at Lobster Films; one as a recut version in the Cinemateque Francais; and a terribly damaged and partial but seemingly original print in the Library of Congress, which was re-discovered in the 1970’s in an excavated swimming pool in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. (For more on this incredible story see Kino Lorber’s recent release Dawson City, Frozen Time). Painstakingly restored to as close to its original runtime and storyline, The Half-Breed premiered in 2013 at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
The film is not only important as an early example of a full-length Douglas Fairbanks movie, but many other important filmmakers worked alongside Fairbanks on this outing. Aside from the aforementioned Anita Loos, The Half-Breed was produced by D.W. Griffith and directed by journeyman Allan Dwan, who has an astounding 407 directing credits to his name (easily half were one- or two-reelers in the early days of cinema). Victor Fleming, of Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz fame, shot the film, and there is even a brief appearance by Elmo Lincoln who would go on to fame and glory as the silver screen’s very first Tarzan.
The Half-Breed is paired with another Dwan/Fairbanks/DeGrasse /Beranger vehicle entitled The Good Bad Man. I actually enjoyed this film more than The Half-Breed. This outing sees Fairbanks as a thief who goes by the moniker “Passin’ Through” and who really has a heart of gold. You see, Passin’ Through never knew his daddy so he robs from the rich to deliver goods to fatherless boys. Of course, this doesn’t sit well with the law, and it seems every two-bit sheriff in the region is on the lookout for this rapscallion. Meanwhile, Passin’ Through is passing through a town when he meets a delightful young lady named Sarah (Bessie Love). Unfortunately, the local gangster, called The Wolf, also has eyes for Sarah. Now Passin’ Through has both the lawmen and the gangsters after him. What’s a man to do?
The Good Bad Man is incomplete and runs for only 50 minutes. Restored in 2014, the film still contains a surprisingly coherent narrative as well as a good deal of comedy (and action and romance). It’s a quickie, but it’s also pure fun.
To round out this fine Douglas Fairbanks set is a fascinating lecture given before the 2013 premiere of The Half-Breed that examines the reconstruction of the film. Any cinephile will enjoy the talk and will be impressed at the tenaciousness of the preservationists as they painstakingly researched and reassembled the film. Both films also come with lively audio commentaries by Robert Byrne, who worked on the preservation of both films, and Tracey Goessel, Fairbank’s biographer. Photo galleries for both films round out the special features.
This is a superb Blu-ray release from Kino-Lorber and worth every penny. For those sceptics of silent films, this would be an excellent starter set as both films are short and quite entertaining. You can purchase the film directly from Kino Lorber at kinolorber.com or through Amazon.
