Having moved with producer Thomas Ince to Paramount, William S. Hart tried to expand his repertoire of storytelling, yet retain his formula, as I outline in my Ince biography. THE SILENT MAN (1917), based on a story by Charles Kenyon, was burdened by an overloaded narrative that could not contain its many elements, resulting in a presentation that, serial-style, abandons some plot threads in favor of new ones.
THE SILENT MAN begins with a series of intertitles typifying the most overblown of Hart's purple prose. "The region that God cursed and left unfinished: a vast mysterious sea of wind and sage." Shots of the desert follow. "Primordial desolation, a huge waste shunned by beast and bird, fostering only a poisonous life of a hiss and fang." There, we will meet the story's hero. "A trackless solitude braved only by the superman, combating the eternal dryness in search of gold." "Silent" Budd Marr arrives on the town of Bakeoven, where in the Hello Thar saloon this paragon of clean-living amidst the harshest of nature orders the simplest but most desirable condiment: water.
He meets a kindly stranger, "Grubstake" Higgins (J.P. Lockney). When Marr pays in gold dust, the avarice is aroused of the supposed-owner of the saloon, "Handsome Jack" Pressley (Robert McKim). The celebration of Marr and Higgins is interrupted by Topaz (Dorcas Mathews), who has dragged her down. Between sobs, she tells Marr that Pressley married her to make her into a dance girl. Marr is tricked into a card game in which he realizes too late that she is signaling to Pressley.
A fortnight later, Pressley is in nearby Chrloride, courting Betty Bryce (Vola Vale), and Marr is released from prison, only to find his claim taken by Pressley's partner. Robbing the first stage containing its proceeds, Marr discovers Pressley with his new wife, and abducts her. She refuses to believe ill of him, so Marr leaves her at the home of "Preachin" Bil Hardy (George Nichols) and his wife (Gertrude Claire). As a result, Pressley and his men burn the church, in a scene clearly echoing the previous year's HELL'S HINGES.
Realizing he can't avoid the stigma of crime, Marr allows Betty's little brother David (Harold Goodwin) to turn him in for the reward. But at the trial, Higgins reveals himself as a marshal who knows the truth about Pressley and Mitchell. When a lynching looms for the innocent, Higgins handily has troops at hand. It requires this deus ex machina to resolve the disjointed plot, tie up the many loose ends, and allow the right to triumph, so that Hardy may marry Betty to Marr. Routinely directed, Hart places his own presentation of his heroic character front and center, leaving surrounding plot sense behind amidst what are becoming ritualistic plot motifs.
THE SILENT MAN begins with a series of intertitles typifying the most overblown of Hart's purple prose. "The region that God cursed and left unfinished: a vast mysterious sea of wind and sage." Shots of the desert follow. "Primordial desolation, a huge waste shunned by beast and bird, fostering only a poisonous life of a hiss and fang." There, we will meet the story's hero. "A trackless solitude braved only by the superman, combating the eternal dryness in search of gold." "Silent" Budd Marr arrives on the town of Bakeoven, where in the Hello Thar saloon this paragon of clean-living amidst the harshest of nature orders the simplest but most desirable condiment: water.
He meets a kindly stranger, "Grubstake" Higgins (J.P. Lockney). When Marr pays in gold dust, the avarice is aroused of the supposed-owner of the saloon, "Handsome Jack" Pressley (Robert McKim). The celebration of Marr and Higgins is interrupted by Topaz (Dorcas Mathews), who has dragged her down. Between sobs, she tells Marr that Pressley married her to make her into a dance girl. Marr is tricked into a card game in which he realizes too late that she is signaling to Pressley.
A fortnight later, Pressley is in nearby Chrloride, courting Betty Bryce (Vola Vale), and Marr is released from prison, only to find his claim taken by Pressley's partner. Robbing the first stage containing its proceeds, Marr discovers Pressley with his new wife, and abducts her. She refuses to believe ill of him, so Marr leaves her at the home of "Preachin" Bil Hardy (George Nichols) and his wife (Gertrude Claire). As a result, Pressley and his men burn the church, in a scene clearly echoing the previous year's HELL'S HINGES.
Realizing he can't avoid the stigma of crime, Marr allows Betty's little brother David (Harold Goodwin) to turn him in for the reward. But at the trial, Higgins reveals himself as a marshal who knows the truth about Pressley and Mitchell. When a lynching looms for the innocent, Higgins handily has troops at hand. It requires this deus ex machina to resolve the disjointed plot, tie up the many loose ends, and allow the right to triumph, so that Hardy may marry Betty to Marr. Routinely directed, Hart places his own presentation of his heroic character front and center, leaving surrounding plot sense behind amidst what are becoming ritualistic plot motifs.