“The Half-Breed” is a fantastic silent-film Blu-ray release which includes two films directed by Alan Dwan and starring Douglas Fairbanks. But also one of America’s earlier silent films that tackled racism in America about a man born half Native American and half white. Fascinating, entertaining and recommended!
© 2018 Kino Lorber. All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: The Half-Breed / The Good Bad Man
DATE OF FILM RELEASE: 1916
DURATION: 72 Minutes/50 Minutes Minutes
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p (1:33:1 Aspect Ratio), DTS HD-Master Audio, B&W, English Intertitles
COMPANY: Kino Classics/Kino Lorber
RATED: Not Rated
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2018
Based on the story “In the Carquinez Woods” by Bret Harte
Directed by Allan Dwan
Written by Anita Loos
Produced by D.W. Griffith
The Good Bad Man
Directed by Allan Dwan
Written by Douglas Fairbanks
Produced by Douglas Fairbanks
Cinematography by Victor Fleming
“The Half Breed” Starring:
Douglas Fairbanks as Lo Dorman (Sleeping Water)
Alma Rubens as Teresa
Sam De Grasse as Sheriff Dunn
Tom Wilson as Dick Curson
Frank Brownlee as Winslow Wynn
Jewel Carmen as Nellie
George Beranger as Jack Brace
“The Good Bad Man” Starring:
Douglas Fairbanks as Passin’ Through
Sam De Grasse as “The Wolf/Bud Frazer”
Pomeroy Cannon as U.S. Marshal/Bob Evans
Joseph Singleton as Weazel
Bessie Love – The Girl/Sarah May
Mary Alden – Jane Stuart
George Beranger – Thomas Stuart
Fred Burns – Sheriff
In an attempt to brand himself as a serious actor, the smiling swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks starred in THE HALF-BREED (1916), a Western melodrama written by Anita Loos and directed with flair by Allan Dwan. Fairbanks stars as Lo Dorman, who has been ostracized from society because of this mixed ethnicity – his Native American mother was abandoned by his white father. When Lo catches the eye of the rich white debutante Nellie (Jewel Carmen), he becomes a target for the racist Sheriff Dunn (Sam De Grasse), who wants to break them up and take Nelli for his own. This love triangle becomes a quadrangle with the arrival of Teresa (Alma Rubens), who is on the run from the law. Through fire and fury Lo must decide who and what he truly loves.
In 1925, director Allan Dwan was one of the more popular directors for Paramount Pictures, known for directing films starring Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson and also Douglas Fairbanks for his 1922 film “Robin Hood”.
And would transition to sound films starring Shirley Temple and also would directing the highly acclaimed John Wayne 1949 box office hit, “Sands of Iwo Jima”.
While Dwan’s film career started as early as 1911 in short films, he would begin directing full-length silent films in 1914 with “The Unwelcome Mrs. Hatch” but in 1916, Dwan worked with Douglas Fairbanks for two films. The first is “The Good Bad Man” which was written by Douglas Fairbanks and “The Half-Breed”.
And now both films will be released on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.
“The Half-Breed” is a film that begins with an Indian woman who had a child by a white man who left her. Because she gave birth to a half-breed, she was cast out by the Cherokee and the only friend she had was a hermit naturalist.
The hermit would raise the half-breed named Lo Dorman/Sleeping Water (portrayed by Douglas Fairbanks) up until his death. Unfortunately, because of his death and anyone Native American is not allowed to hold onto property, Lo is kicked out of his home and must now prepare a new life in the world of ruthless white men who constantly insult him.
While Lo Dorman enters a village called Excelsior full of white men, everyone looks down on him including Sheriff Dunn (portrayed by Sam De Grasse), who is unaware that Lo is his son; Dick Curson (portrayed by Nellie) and Jack Brace (portrayed by George Beranger).
And each of these men are interested in marrying the beautiful Nellie (portrayed by Jewel Carmen), daughter of a preacher.
Meanwhile, Nellie tries to flirt with Lo, but mainly to get her father to further her ambitions, so she can marry any (wealthy) man she wants.
But the men who see Nellie with Lo, don’t like it and let him know that because he is Indian, he is not welcomed.
Meanwhile, snake salesmen, Dick Curson (portrayed by Tom Wilson) is trying to sell a medicine that will cure scurvy, sciatica, rheumatism and pulmonary consumption for men, women and children. He has his assistant, Teresa (portrayed by Alma Rubens) to sell her medicine to the crowd and tries to sell it to Lo (but said because he’s an Indian, he’s not worth saving).
But from this initial meeting between Lo and Teresa, what happens when their paths cross each other once again? And what happens when Nellie tries to look for where Lo is living?
In the second film, “The Good Bad Man”, the miscreants led by Bud Frazer a.k.a. “The Wolf” literally have a village under their control. Bob Evans the Marshal (portrayed by Pomeroy Cannon) is not a good sheriff.
Meanwhile, a man named “Passin’ Through” (portrayed by Douglas Fairbanks) comes to the village and needs a place to stay temporarily. He is greeted by Amy (portrayed by Bessie Love) and her disabled father.
While staying at their place, he starts to become smitten towards Amy, but when The Wolf comes and wants Amy for himself, Passin’ Through stops him and tells him that Amy is his. Setting up a rivalry among both men.
Meanwhile, Passin’ Through is in search for a man named Frazer, his real father, and a man that Passin’ Through wants to take his revenge against him.
VIDEO:
“The Half-Breed” is presented in 1080p HD, black and white. And this version presented from Kino Lorber is the best quality and most complete of the film you will find available in home video.
According to the introduction:
Since the film’s release in 1916, the distribution rights were sold to multiple distributors based on a territorial “state rights” arrangement. So, over the years, the film was re-issued under various guises, re-titled or re-edited.
A few unique elements of “The Half-Breed” have survived. In 1978, an incomplete and heavily damaged 35mm nitrate print distributed by S.A. Lynch Enterprises was discovered in a cache of discarded films in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Preserved at the United Library of Congress, this fragmentary copy (2,076 sq. ft.) is the only known material with original 1916 titles.
A complete five-reel (4,320 ft.) 35mm diacetate Pathe print of the 1924 re-issue version from Tri-Stone Pictures is preserved in the collection of Cinematheque francaise. This print is of superior visual quality but lacks the original titles, instead featuring titles re-written in 1924.
A re-titled 16mm diacetate abridgment (836 ft.) of unknown origin owned by Lobster Films has also been found to include material not present in extant 35mm sources.
For the film featured, the reconstruction is based on the original continuity of the S.A. Lynch and Tri-Stone prints. The 16mm diacetate print follows a different continuity but contains unique sequences that fill obvious gaps in the 35mm sources. These sequences have been included in the reconstruction.
Image restoration was based on black-and-white 2K scans of the source materials and carried out using the HS-ART Diamant film restoration suite. Restoration was limited to repairing damage and reducing the effects of material deterioration.
Where extant, titles from the S.A. Lynch print have been included as they are the sole source for the original 1916 titles. In cases where the original title material no longer exists, replacements have been created using the 1924 Tri-Stone title script which is conserved at the Cinematheque francais. These replacement titles include the designation “TRI-STONE” in the lower right corner in order to differentiate them from the originals.
The restoration of “The Half-Breed” was completed in June 2013 as a collaboration between Cinematheque francaise and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
As for “The Good Bad Man”, no copies of the original 1916 release are known to survive. The restoration featured on the Blu-ray is based on a copy of the 1923 Tri-Stone re-issue which is preserved in the collection of the Cinematheque francaise.
It’s important to note that because “The Half-Breed” utilizes different film sources, some frames are not pristine and are slightly damaged (especially the frames from Dawson City) but considering the age of both films and the fact that many other silent films have received a lot of damage, both of these films look very good for its age. Sure, they are not perfectly pristine and one shouldn’t expect silent films to be perfect at all, but to watch both 1916 films on Blu-ray and not severely damaged is amazing.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“The Half-Breed” and “The Good Man” are presented with English intertitles and features a piano score composed and performed by Donald Sosin featured in DTS-HD Master Audio.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Half-Breed” comes with the following special feature:
- Audio Commentaries – Featuring an audio commentary for both “The Half-Breed” and “The Good Man” by Tracey Goessel and Robert Byrne.
- Amazing Tales from the Archives Restoring “The Half-Breed” – (43:51) A lengthy special feature about the restoring of “The Half-Breed”.
- Photo Gallery
Watching these two Alan Dwan/Douglas Fairbanks films is fantastic.
For one, these films are over a hundred years old and the overall effort to restore “The Half-Breed” from a variety of sources, is fantastic and to also include “The Good Bad Man” as a second bonus film for this Blu-ray release is wonderful.
But first, let’s discuss “The Half-Breed”. I was surprised while watching this silent film because racism in America is a hot topic. And even in today’s social climate, where racism is in the forefront of news reports, typically in America’s past, it’s not something you see featured in American cinema.
But “The Half-Breed” is a film that tackles the fact that a man who is born Indian/White is looked down upon both the tribe and White people is something of a rarity.
Sure, in today’s cinema, the last 20-years have featured film and news articles of people who are half and the challenges that exist for some individuals but back in 1916, Alan Dwan’s film tackles it but there is no happy ending.
This is a film that tries to show sympathy but considering America was never too kind towards people that were non-white, may it be the Native American Indians that they stole land from, the Chinese who were looked down upon and the Black men who were slaves. There is no way you can think of a happy ending for the character of Lo Dorman (Sleeping Water).
It was no doubt one of the earlier films to expose racism towards a half Indian and half white man. And while fascinating for viewers now, from seeing Fairbanks play an Indian/white man that is treated lower than a normal human being and seeing how the film tries to expose racism but also incorporate people of color earlier in the film through a saloon scene (which was also surprising to me as well).
But did it make anyone feel bad for the character? Maybe a few.
Considering that several months prior to the film being released, one of the most racist films ever released in America was D.W. Griffith’s 2015 silent film “Birth of a Nation”.
“Birth of a Nation†would be the first American blockbuster and also the first feature length film over one hour. Because of the cost of making this epic, to watch this film, the average cost was $2 (for that time, is equivalent to around $43 today) and the film was popular and broke box office records.
As the film focused on the Civil War, the death of Abraham Lincoln and the reconstruction via post-Civil War, because it was based on Thomas F. Dixon’s novel, the film is about the corruption of the South by the Republican North by “carpetbaggers†(those from the North who moved to the South) by giving control to the corrupted Black people which would lead to the creation of the Ku Kux Klan, praised as heroes to restore order to the South.
Needless to say, the film received protests and was banned in several cities, especially when Blacks were being beaten and killed by those who took the film by heart and would use to justify their violence to hurt Black people. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) protested and even conducted public education campaigns to let people know of the film’s fabrication and inaccuracies.
To this day, “The Birth of a Nation†continues to be a controversial film because of the film’s racist ideology which has been proven to be filled with inaccuracies. But when the film was created in 1914, people only know what they were taught. And back then, people learned through the Dunning School, a group of historians who shared their historiographical school of thought regarding the Reconstruction period of American history. The leaders of the revisionist movement criticized Dunning’s racially biased narrative, especially as the Dunning school would look at Blacks to be ignorant and savages at the end of slavery.
But as Dunning schools teachings began to be known as “fact†for many people of that time, despite the generalizations and racist biased, that’s how people grew up during that time.
While many film critics have criticized the film because of its racial overtones, if one can separate themselves from that and put themselves in the shoes of viewers at that moment of time, “Birth of a Nation†was a cinematic revolution.
For me, watching “The Half-Breed” probably hits closer to home. While I’m Asian-American, I grew up in an area where many friends who were White-skinned, came from an upbringing where a parent had Native American lineage.
I happen to be married to a woman who is white and my son is half. I’ve raised a son who’s skin color is more Caucasian and I’ve had to deal with people who thought either I adopted my son or couldn’t understand why a white child is being pushed around a grocery cart with a brown-skinned man. Let alone going to a public place with my Caucasian wife. Sure, times have changed for the best, but ignorant people still exist.
So, watching “The Half-Breed”, I was sympathetic for it, until the second-half when the film changes thanks to the two women that Lo befriends. Without spoiling the film, I will say I found it interesting to see how the character of Teresa (portrayed by Alma Rubens) would play a major part in the film.
Alma Rubens did such a wonderful job of playing the character of Teresa but it was unfortunate that a decade later, a life of drugs would destroy her career but also the deterioration of her body would lead to her early death. And another tragic story of another starlet who succumbed to drug use in Hollywood.
Things didn’t fare well for Jewel Carmen nearly two decades after the making of “The Half-Breed”. Carmen, the actress who played the role of the greedy yet ambitious Nellie, had her name attached to the surprising 1935 death of popular actress Thelma Todd.
Todd was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in the garage of the home of Carmen. Carmen was the wife of Todd’s lover and business partner, Roland West at the time. Todd’s death was listed as “accidental with possible suicide tendencies”.
But it would lead Jewel Carmen to escape from the public eye after the scandal.
While I enjoyed “The Half-Breed”, you can’t help that there may be certain parts of the story missing. But for the most part, what is featured on this Blu-ray is a coherent and entertaining silent film.
The accompanying silent film titled “The Good Bad Man” is a fascinating silent western about a deadly love triangle. One is a leader of a gang that has a village under his palm, while the other is another bad man, but with a good heart who is smitten with a girl (portrayed by Bessie Love).
I’ve read that “The Good Bad Man” which was written by Douglas Fairbanks, mirrors his real life in the fact that the character Passin’ Through has unresolved feelings and wants revenge against his father who was never in his life. For Fairbanks, his father abandoned his family when Fairbanks was five-years-old.
So, this film was no doubt an action-driven film for Fairbanks, but also a personal one as well.
As for these two films, once again, Kino Lorber has released another magnificent silent film release featuring an earlier work by filmmaker Alan Dwan.
You get two entertaining Douglas Fairbanks film on one Blu-ray disc and you also get two insightful audio commentaries plus a 45+ minute featurette about the restoration of “The Half-Breed”.
Overall, “The Half-Breed” is a fantastic silent-film Blu-ray release which includes two films directed by Alan Dwan and starring Douglas Fairbanks. But also one of America’s earlier silent films that tackled racism in America about a man born half Native American and half white. Fascinating, entertaining and recommended!
