The western : from silents to cinerama (1962)

It is a pity that few of the hundreds of Broncho Billy Anderson pictures have survived, which complicates any accurate appraisal of his qualities as a director. But there is certainly no denying the tremendous popularity of his films, or their influence on Western production generally. We wish to quote at this point, and in its entirety, a typical unsigned review of one of the Anderson Westerns, as published in The Moving Picture World, a trade paper, in its May 15, 1909, issue in order to stress the action and solidity of those primitive works: a Mexican's gratitude "An Essanay film which had some thrilling scenes and is certain to please the average audience wherever it is shown. There is life and action without bloodshed and the melodramatic features are made attractive rather than repulsive. The story is that a Mexican is saved from being hanged as a horsethief by the sheriff. He writes the word 'Gratitude' on a card, tears it in two and gives one half to the sheriff and keeps the other half himself. Years afterward this same sheriff falls in love with a girl of the West. She is wanted by a cowboy and he contrives to bring the sheriff and another girl together, and gets the girl the sheriff loves there just in time to see him in the scheming girl's embrace. Explanations are impossible and he sees the girl he wants walk away with the false cowboy. The sheriff has a fight with him and forces him to confess his treachery. The cowboy goes to a Mexican's hut and secures the services of two greasers to do his bidding. The three lie in wait for the sheriff and his sweetheart, overpower them and drag them away to the Mexican's hut where the cowboy tantalizes the sheriff for a time and then forces the girl into another room. The Mexican wants some tobacco and sees a sack projecting from the sheriff's pocket. In pulling it out, he pulls out also the half of the card with the word 'Gratitude' upon it. When the cowboy returns to the room he is comparing the card. He then asks the sheriff if that was given him by a man whom he saved from lynching a few years before. The sheriff replies that it was. Whereupon the Mexican immediately loosens the sheriff's bonds, and a fight between the sheriff and the cowboy ensues. The sheriff has him across a table choking him into insensibility when the girl appears and begs him to stop and they go away together. It is impossible to invest this story in telling with the life that is in the picture. It seems almost as though the characters were going to speak, they do their parts so naturally, while the staging is remarkably good. The film was heartily applauded in two theatres where it was seen the past week, and everyone who attends motion picture shows knows that applause is somewhat rare." Complete reliability cannot be placed on these early reviews since, of course, film criticism was not yet clearly defined. There were few precedents for comparisons, and many of the terms to describe film gram 55 PORTER AND .