Wid's Filmdom (1920)

Sunday, August 22, 1920 +14 SEY Just An Average Western Edythe Sterling in “THE GIRL WHO DARED” Republic PCOS CRC es cic ss ore ree Cliff Smith PLE ICME ss... ae ee Alvin J. Seitz ee tr rs eles...) . .:. i meme Not Credited Poe WUC NLAING ty... sca’... aguante Not Credited TASALW HOLE. ...... Just an average western production BD LOR ae 4 Some of its minor twists aren’t clear but rapid action arid emphasis of salient features put it over OT Steet) NSCs ai: ss scp Dae eee ese wile a Average Pat ROGRAPHYs..... . Generally good—some few poor shots. | De LRSEAGLIWN SOMME, ob... ss Generally satisfactory PPLE OI Met <.. . . e ne ete Satisfactory LM PE UN. Bass a gn 23 aa Pete Satisfactory SER OR Ay ) SASL | SSS es a ee Fair BPM PEG ISLC) INC Mie te cakes ss os Usual western stuff BOD Le LC) RC SMa re Pg el «nl Senay costae + Fair PERN AL UE OS as hin 5 se ip = iow a giterterg Rally 5 All right CHARACTER OF STORY ....Girl-sheriff captures cattle rustling villains and saves father from false accusation. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION ..... About 5,000 feet “The Girl Who Dared” is responsible for still another mark opposite the greatly favored “average western” classification. There are times during its course when it slips a little below this mark, but taken by and large it offers the usual entertainment along these lines. Its story is fast-moving to the extreme, and furious riding, villains who stop at nothing and a nice assortment of stunts and thrills thrown in. Where “The Girl Who Dared” skids is in its continuity. There are several places where action has been removed by the editor who neglected to substi ~ tute anything for it. Two shootings are thus skipped by with great suddenness. On the other hand they encounter a pretty hard time of it keeping the details of the story straight in its middle part. There are a considerable number of these details, strange enough, and the motion and riding is so fast that they are unable to make themselves felt. However, the salient turns of the plot are plain and obvious. Edythe Sterling appears as Barbara Hampton, daughter of a ranch owner, who is elected sheriff of New York, a western town so named because it is different from the eastern burg. Barbara incurs the enmity of Knowles, former sheriff, her father’s foreman, and a silent leader of an outlaw band whose active head is Ramez. Knowles’ plot is intricate. First he discharges all the honest ranch hands. Then he puts the Ramez crowd in their places. Then he ‘“frames’” Hampton on a charge of cattle rustling. Then he rouses his neighboring ranch owner against him so that Barbara is forced to throw her father into jail. In the meantime Knowles and Ramez drive off hundreds of cattle in the general direction of the Mexican border and then kill and rob the cattle buyer who had come to negotiate a business deal with Hampton. Barbara gets on their trail and single-handed surprises Knowles and Ramez in their lair. She ropes them and directs her pony to drag them up the side of a cliff, and this accomplished she goes up herself and lands the villains in jail. Subsequently she saves her father from being strung up to a tree and all ends happily. The romantic element is very thin and gets little attention throughout the picture. Miss Sterling renders a satisfacory performance in the role of Barbara. Steve Clemento as Ramez and Jack Carlyle as Knowles do their villainous tricks averagely well. One named Yakima Canutt is the hero and isn’t much of an actor. Gordon Sackville is Hampton. Not Big League—Few Advertising Opportunities Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor “The Girl Who Dared”’ isn’t big league stuff and doesn’t pretend to be. It’s the sort of picture that passes average muster at the transient houses which, during the day time, draw a rather easily pleased crowd and those who have an hour to spare and don't care much what they do get as long as they get a picture. The production hasn’t any great box office value in the way of names. No one very well known seems to be connected with it. The title itself may attract some. At the same time there is no denying the fact that it is quite conventional and doesn’t seem to suggest anything out of the ordinary. Just advertise this as a western and lay stress on the final stunt. You might also find some way of originally presenting the story by referring to the fact that it takes up the career of a western girl who is elected sheriff of her town.