Classics of the silent screen (1959)

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Richard Barthelmess as David, with Lassie. Director Henry King shot the film on locations near his own home, which may account for the complete "rightness" of every exterior scene. ToTable David, 1921 Tol'able David is one of those timeless pictures that seems every bit as great today as when it was made. A piece of Americana as authentic as the best of Mark Twain, it will doubtless still be shown a hundred years from now as an example of part of the changing American scene. Indeed, even today the particular milieu that it depicts has already become a thing of the past, so the film has an added cultural and historical significance that it didn't have on its original -release. Based on a novel by Joseph Hergeshcimer, it is a simple tale of mountain folk, focussing on the youngest son of a large family who yearns to drive the mail, a position of honor and trust held by his elder brother. The story takes a melodramatic turn when the community is plagued by the arrival of three outlaws, escaping from a sheriff's posse in the neighboring state. One of them, a moron, savagely beats the elder brother ( well played by Warner Richmond ) and cripples him for life. The father, knowing that his action will mean his own death, but determined not to falter from the path of honor, takes down his gun and goes seeking justice— only to be shot down. Young David (Richard Barthelmess), now the man of the family, is determined in his headstrong fashion to rush out and right this wrong. But his distraught mother dissuades him, and he reluctantly settles down 36