The Film Daily (1919)

Sunday, June 22, 1919 Sli^l AILV Hart Pulls Novel Stunt in Rapid-Action Cowboy Drama William S. Hart in "Square Deal Sanderson" Artcraft DIRECTORS. . . William S. Hart and Lambert Hillyer SUPERVISED BY Thomas H. Ince VUTHOR Charles A. Seltzer CAMERAMAN Joe August \S A WHOLE Lots of gun=play, hard-riding and snappv action in capably produced picture. 5TORY .".Taken from story by Charles Alden Seltzer published in the Argosy magazine. DIRECTION. . . .Never lets things drag for a moment PHOTOGRAPHY Clear and pleasing LIGHTINGS Good :AMERA WORK Long shots of range country in Arizona are very fine; close=ups used to good purpose in dramatic scenes. STAR Pulls a few new stunts as cowboy hero SUPPORT Frank Whitson is the willun and Ann Little the girl saved by hero Bill Hart; others in minor roles look their parts. EXTERIORS Western country offers suitable backgrounds. INTERIORS Conventional DETAIL Most of the titles are written in the cowboy lingo; directors were careful about details calculated to give the production at= mosphere. CHARACTER OF STORY Typical Hart picture LENGTH OF PRODUCTION About 4,800 feet tONSIDERIXG the hundreds of thousands of feet of cowboy melodrama that have been produced since the days of Broncho Billy Anderson, it is something 3t" an accomplishment to find a new stunt for a tbrillng climax. Bill. Hart found one for "Square Deal Sanderson" and it sure does go over big. The audience is all excited about the predicament in which Bill tad Shero Ann Little are placed, for Willun Frank Yhitson has them at his mercy when the cowboy hero falls a trick that is likely to get a hand from any rowd. Hart, bound to a chair, works his way across the •(ii.in to a stove where he holds the rope against a burning log until the strands part, of course, this lias been done before, but what follows is novel. In Ijolng room, Willun Whitson is making things decidedly uncomfortable for Ann. instead of breaking through the door. Bill throws a rope over the partition. Catching WhitSOn's head in the DOOSe; then draws him up against the side of the wall. After the man has almost choked to death, he is allowed to fall to the Boor, lor Hart prefers to kill him in another way. (Hie other incident revealing ingenuity in continuity development comes in an earlier sequence. Hart has been jailed by his arch enemy, who, incidentally is in love with Ann. Determined to get free, the resourceful cowboy, aided by a confederate on the outside, manages to hitch a cable around the bars of his prison cell, the other end of the cable being attached to a cart drawn by a mule team. As a result, the bars are torn out of the side of the building and the prisoner walks to freedom. These happenings have been mentioned in particular because they are important in putting over a production with Bill Hart fans, who have come to expect an action-story tempered by heart interest. In "Square Deal Sanderson" they will find their hero running true to form as the fearless rider of the plains whose code of honor is always backed up by the ability to get what he wants. Just to set the pace at a high speed, they bring in a double shooting before the picture has run half a reel. Among the papers carried by one of the dead men, Bill finds a letter and a roll of bills sent by the outlaw's sister, the letter containing an urgent appeal for the return of the brother whom she has never seen since childhood. His sense of chivalry being appealed to, Square Deal Sanderson takes it upon himself to help the girl, who is in danger of being swindled out of her ranch. Ann believes him to be her brother and Bill plays the part because it fits in with his plan to checkmate Willun Frank Whitson, who is a big power in his old home town. From the time the cowboy adopts the cause of the defenceless girl, it is a battle of wits between the two men, enlivened by plenty of physical combat. The plot is complicated enough to carry the action and there is a touch of romance in the relationship of Ann and her champion, who, of course, is forgiven for his deception and accepted as a partner in the ranch business on a matrimonial basis. Sure to Get Across With Any Sort of a Crowd Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor This holds all the way. It is a good audience picure which is well worth backing up with a generous xploitation campaign. Once in a while Hart tries pmething different, but seemingly he has proven to us own satisfaction that folks are best satisfied when ie sticks to the sort of cowboy characters that he las made famous. "Square Deal Sanderson" is a gular Bill Hart story, but that doesn't mean it is kerely a repetition of what he has done before. You may even work along the line of this being a lestern drama that is different, playing upon the (ovelty of the situations introduced, notably the one feferred to at some length in an earlier paragraph. fell your folks that if they think they are familiar pth all the stunts used in cowboy dramas, they will Iscover something new in William S. Hart's latest production. "Square Deal Sanderson," an adaptation of one of Charles A. Seltzer's popular stories. Hart's pictures always have one big point in their favor. They are melodramatic enough to suit the taste of the most sensation-loving crowd in the cheaper neighborhoods, but equally they appeal to another and more critical public that wants to see things done right and is quick to detect small flaws in a production. This is expertly constructed to prevent inconsistencies in the plot, also it is staged in a way that carries faithfully the atmosphere of the west of a more romantic period. Some of your patrons may be interested in learning that Ann Little is Hart's leading woman. Her name is fairly well known to film fans and she gives a creditable performance in the character of the girl whom the squaredealing cowboy befriends.