IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

One of the things that has always intrigued me about silent Westerns is the fact that the productions were only forty years removed from the period they were depicting — the equivalent of a current motion picture set in the 1970s.  Since some members of the cast and crew likely lived through the “Old West” period, silent Westerns, rightly or wrongly, have always felt more authentic to me than Westerns produced decades later.

Kino Lorber recently released two excellent examples of the silent Western in the single Blu-ray release of The Half-Breed / The Good Bad Man (1916). Both films were released in 1916; both star Douglas Fairbanks prior to his swashbuckler period; both were directed by Alan Dwan and lensed by Victor Fleming; and both feature intriguing stories involving questionable parentage.  I previously reviewed The Good Bad Man, so now let’s turn our attention to The Half-Breed.

While The Good Bad Man was an intentional step away from the light comedies for which Douglas Fairbanks was primarily known, that Western had a fairly light tone and was not devoid of humor.  The Half Breed is a more obvious attempt for Fairbanks to be taken seriously as an actor.  The scenario by Anita Loos was based on a story by Bret “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” Harte, and it is no laughing matter.  The film begins with a prologue in which a young Native American woman leaves her newborn baby with a hermit before committing suicide, due to having been abandoned by the white man who seduced her.  This gives the audience an immediate idea of the type of sober melodrama that is about to unspool.

When the hermit dies, the child, now grown into a young man known as Lo Dorman (Douglas Fairbanks), finds himself ostracized from all the white settlers, due to his mixed race.  The racism is compounded when Nellie (Jewel Carmen), the rich, beautiful preacher’s daughter finds herself sexually attracted to Lo, which does not sit well with the “good citizens” of the town, including the bigoted Sheriff Dunne (Sam De Grasse), who wants Nellie for himself.  Complicating matters is Teresa (Alma Rubens), a tempestuous female on the run from the law, who also takes a liking to the honorable Lo.  All in all, the forest-dwelling Lo would be better off avoiding the so-called “civilized” settlers altogether.

While the story takes a few predictable turns, such as the reveal of the identity of Lo’s father, the narrative usually avoids the expected, audience-pleasing path.  This is not a simple story of star-crossed lovers.  Neither of the female leads is really worthy of the steadfast Lo.  Nellie is too frivolous and concerned about her social status, while Teresa is a bit too “stabby.”  The script is also surprisingly respectful in its depiction of Native Americans, when you consider that it was written over 100 years ago.  Lo Dorman and his mother are presented as honest and honorable, while the white settlers are depicted as a mix of drunkards, liers, snobs, superficial idiots, and religious hypocrites.

Like The Good Bad Man, The Half-Breed is expertly directed by Allan Dwan (who would later direct Doug in his greatest success, Robin Hood) and beautifully photographed by cinematographer Victor Fleming (who would later go on to direct The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind).  While most of the films made at the time were studio-bound, The Half-Breed was filmed on location, and the forests, hills, dusty trails, and streams provide a beautiful backdrop for the story.

Douglas Fairbanks could not help but be charming in every film he made, but fans of the actor may be surprised at his comparatively serious, soulful performance in The Half-Breed.  Beyond a few impressive leaps, there is also little of the athletic acrobatics for which Fairbanks is famous.  That doesn’t make The Half-Breed a bad vehicle for the actor.  It just makes it an atypical entry in the Fairbanks filmography.  The Good Bad Man is a more fun film, but The Half-Breed may be a slightly better movie.  However, you really can’t go wrong with either title.  Kino Lorber has done silent film fans a great favor in releasing these films together.

USA/B&W-73m./Dir: Allan Dwan/Wr: Anita Loos (based on a story “In The Carquinez Woods” by Bret Harte)/Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Alma Rubens, Sam De Grasse, Jewel Carmen, Tom Wilson, Frank Brownlee, George Beranger

For Fans of: Fans of both Westerns and Douglas Fairbanks films should enjoy this early example of both.

Video: Kino Lorber released a Blu-ray double-feature of The Half-Breed / The Good Bad Man (1916) on May 1st.  Unfortunately, the video presentation of The Half-Breed is not quite as strong as that of The Good Bad Man, due to the mix of elements available for the restoration.  A water-damaged 35mm print of the 1916 release was discovered in the 1978 Dawson City Find (documented in the film Dawson City: Frozen Time).  This gave the restoration team the original narrative and cutting continuity, but the damage was too heavy for much of the print to be used in the final restoration.  A truncated 1924 re-release print held by the Cinémathèque française was used for 90 percent of the photographic shots in the reconstruction. Finally, a 16mm abridgement print, provided by France’s Lobster Films, filled in some missing scenes.  Consequently, the image switches from quite sharp to fairly muddy from shot to shot.  Still, we should be thankful that the 102 year-old picture survives in any form.

In addition to containing restored presentations of both films, the Blu-ray includes:

• Amazing Tales from the Archives: Restoring The Half-Breed
• Audio Commentaries for The Half-Breed and The Good Bad Man by Tracey Goessel (author of The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks) and Robert Byrne (film preservationist and Board Chairman of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival)
• Music on both films composed and performed by Donald Sosin.  The score for The Half-Breed is especially effective, using a mix of styles and instruments.  It adds mightily to the enjoyment of the film.
• Photo Gallery
• Reversible Art (with the original posters for each film on alternative sides)

Streaming: The Half-Breed was unavailable on any streaming platform at the time of this review.

More to Explore: If you want to dig deeper into Douglas Fairbanks’ pre-swashbuckler output, you can’t beat Flicker Alley’s DVD box set, Douglas Fairbanks: A Modern Musketeer (His Picture in the Papers / The Mystery of the Leaping Fish / Flirting With Fate / The Matrimaniac / Wild and Woolly / Reaching for the Moon / When the Clouds Roll By / The Mollycoddle / The Mark of Zorro / The Nut), which collects 10 Fairbanks features from 1916 to 1921.

Trivia: Surprisingly, Douglas Fairbanks’ near-nude bathing scene at the beginning of the film was added to placate his wife, Mary Pickford.  She was hesitant to let her husband portray an “unwashed” half-breed, so the director inserted the scene to prove to Mary that the character was washed.

For More Info: There are lots of books on Doug and his films.  Some of the best include The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks by Tracey Goessel, Douglas Fairbanks and the American Century by John C. Tibbetts and James M. Welsh, and Douglas Fairbanks by Jeffrey Vance.