IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

If modern audiences are familiar with early motion picture mega-star Douglas Fairbanks, it is as the silent era’s proto-Errol Flynn.  Despite being short in stature with less-than classic good looks (being a bit moon-faced), Fairbanks was the man every boy wanted to be.  Starring in classic swashbucklers such as Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), and The Black Pirate (1926), Doug captivated audiences with his unbridled enthusiasm, personal charisma, and amazing acrobatic ability, effortlessly performing spectacular stunts (usually without a double) and saving the day with bits of derring-do.  Still, it took Fairbanks several years to find that niche for which he would be best remembered.

Fairbanks transitioned from the Broadway stage to the silver screen in 1915, but he didn’t inhabit his first swashbuckling hero role until 1920 in the original version of The Mark of Zorro.  The first five years of his movie career was a period of transition.  He found immediate success at D.W. Griffith’s Triangle Pictures, playing off his stage persona in a series of light comic farces as a shy, under-appreciated protagonist who eventually succeeds through perseverance and surprising athletics.  While most actors would have been happy to continue on the path that endeared them to audiences, Doug wasn’t the type of person who was content to stand still.  Consequently, Fairbanks insisted on stretching as an actor — alternating comedic roles with more serious, dramatic parts.  We can see the beginning of that growth in two Westerns that Fairbanks made at Triangle in 1916, The Good Bad Man and The Half-Breed, which are being released together on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.  I’ll cover each film in individual reviews, in the order of their initial release.

Fairbanks traded his tuxedos and contemporary suits for outdoor wear, dungarees, and cowboy boots in his first Western, The Good Bad Man (1916), a project that meant so much to him that he wrote it himself.  In the film, Doug plays a not-so-bad outlaw who calls himself “Passin’ Through,” an appellation that expresses his wanderlust, whilst hiding his true identity and secret shame.  Like a very specialized Robin Hood, Passin’ Through is known for robbing from the rich and giving to ostracized, fatherless boys.  Can you guess what his secret shame might possibly be?

Passin’ Through’s life takes a new path when he stops in an outlaw encampment.  There he sets his eyes on the beautiful Sarah May (Bessie Love), the daughter of one of the outlaws, and they are immediately smitten with each other.  Unfortunately for the enamored couple, the big boss of the outlaws, known as “The Wolf” (Sam De Grasse), also lusts after Sarah May and is determined to have her.  Not only has Passin’ Through sparked a romance and simultaneously created an enemy; he has unknowingly sets into motion a series of events that will ultimately reveal the secrets of his unknown parentage.

The Good Bad Man was quite a departure for Fairbanks.  Audiences of the time would have associated the “bad man goes straight” story with dour Western icon William S. Hart, but Doug makes the film completely his own through his natural boyish zeal.  It also doesn’t matter that Fairbanks “the screenwriter” filled the story with the of type of  convenient coincidences that one only finds in the movies.  The performances by Doug and the rest of the company are so enthusiastic, that you easily forgive any narrative shortcuts.  Special mention should also be made for Bessie Love, who is quite appealing as the object of the affections of both the hero and the villain.  She makes for a spunky, likable female lead, and it is refreshing that the character is no shrinking violet.  When she is threatened with sexual violence by one of The Wolf’s henchmen, she gives him a bit of a beating, and when bullets start flying, she picks up a six-gun and joins in the fight.  She may be a damsel who is often in distress, but her active role in the action was pretty progressive for 1916.

On a technical level, the film is top-notch.  The Good Bad Man may play out within a breezy 50 minutes, but under the expert hand of director Allan Dwan (who would later direct Doug in his greatest success, Robin Hood) and the artistic eye of cinematographer Victor Fleming (who would later go on to direct The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind) the film still has a bit of an epic feel.  There are several impressive shots where riders on horseback are photographed far in the distance, while a character in the foreground watches from atop a high rocky ledge.  The blocking of the shots, the difficult direction in timing the actor’s performances over such a large land mass, and the fact that the cinematographer was able to keep everything in focus within the frame is remarkable, especially considering how close this feature was made to the birth of motion pictures.

The Good Bad Man was a hit with both critics and audiences upon its original release, which started Fairbanks on a path that would lead to his most-remembered roles.  The film still holds up today, and its Blu-ray release will be a very welcome addition to the home library of any classic film fan.

USA/B&W-50m./Dir: Allan Dwan/Wr: Douglas Fairbanks/Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Bessie Love, Sam De Grasse, Pomeroy Cannon, Fred Burns, Mary Alden, George Beranger, Joseph Singleton,

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

Video: Kino Lorber will release a Blu-ray double-feature of The Half-Breed / The Good Bad Man (1916) on May 1st.  The presentation of The Good Bad Man represents the 2014 restoration of a 35mm copy of the 1923 Tri-Stone re-release preserved in the collection of the Cinémathèque française.  The restoration was completed through a partnership of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, the Film Preservation Society, and Cinémathèque française.  The print is absolutely beautiful.  It is sharp, clear, and looks much better than one would expect from a film that is over 100 years old.

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
• Photo Gallery
• Reversible Art (with the original posters for each film on alternative sides)

Streaming: The Good Bad Man 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: When this 1916 film was re-released in 1923, it was re-edited, title cards were re-written, and even character names were changed.  It is likely that the 1916 version was a bit longer than the current 50-minute running time.  How different the two versions of the film were from each other is impossible to say, because no copies of the original 1916 release version currently exist.

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.