The Squaw Man

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09/24/2013 It was about 1.5hrs, not 6 minutes...I enjoyed it! Depressing ending, though I suppose it kind of cleared the way for Jim to go home again. Guess that was left open for the audience to decide. See more 05/16/2012 One of the very first feature films ever made, this CB. Demille movie is kind of a downer. A man who escapes England on charges of theft, meets and befiriends an Indian Squaw, who becomes his wife, and she is pursued relentlessly for murder charges. Then, rather than face arrest, she kills herself. I'm so glad I saw this, but gladder still that C.B. DeMille movies greatly improved. See more 08/22/2010 Une suite de plans sans grande originalite articules par rien de plus naturel que des intertitres. See more 08/04/2010 What a great Western, so dramatic and socio-critic and the Soundtrack is breathtaking C.B. DeMille was a God starting that phenomenal with a Feature Length Film in 1914 See more 05/27/2010 THE SQUAW MAN not only is the first film directed by Cecil B. DeMille (he's called the "visualizer" according to the credits)...but also has the distinction of being the first "feature film" to be made in what is now Hollywood. That's a lot of history right there and possibly a good reason for a film fan to seek this one out. But, whether it's a "great" film - well, that may be another story. Only because this one really shows it's age and is a good example of how much "film" (and especially "film technology") has changed since the beginning of the film industry. I'd say I'm a fan of DeMille. I suppose I like his films for the exact reasons that others hate them. They are usually over-the-top melodramas and he directs his actors as if the silent era never ended. His very last film - THE TEN COMMANDMENTS is a perfect example of what I mean. I just get a lot of entertainment value (or possibly kitschy value) from a lot of them (even though I may often roll my eyes more often than not)... I think as crude a film as THE SQUAW MAN seems to be - It certainly has that over-the-top quality (story-wise) of DeMille's more polished later films. If you are looking for "logic" in this story - well, you might want to look elsewhere. If some of the plot points don't have you scratching your head...then maybe the editing will. Some of the scene changes in this are just so jarringly abrupt. The film begins in England where cousins Henry (Monroe Salisbury) and James Wynnegate (Dustin Farnum) are made trustees of an Orphan's Fund. They are charged for caring for the money until it can be presented formally to the War Department. Unfortunately, cousin Henry is a gambler and just lost £5,000 at the horse races. So Henry decides to dip into the fund - to the tune of £10,000 - in order to pay off his gambling debts. When the shortage in the cash is discovered, since Henry is an Earl, the family matriarch (A.W. Filson) secretly asks James to take the blame for the embezzlement and flee to New York in order to "save" the "family name" (this does not compute to me because, well - doesn't Henry and James HAVE the SAME NAME - duh)??? Well, James decides he will take the fall for cousin Henry and flees to the United States on a sailing vessel. He is pursued by a detective investigating the theft of the funds. There is a fight onboard the ship between James and the detective...then there is a fire which the inter-title refers to as an "accident" (when it is anything but - maybe DeMille being humorous, i guess). The passengers have to abandon ship and are picked up by a passing vessel and all of a sudden we are in New York and James all of a sudden has lost his mustache which threw me off since I kinda lost track on which guy onscreen was supposed to be James. I told you this film was crude. I needed to rewind back a few scenes to get my bearings again and I finally figured out that James must have shaved his mustache when he arrived in New York - duh! Anyway...James eats at a posh restaurant and saves this guy, "Big" Bill (Dick La Reno) from being pick-pocketed. The grateful Bill invites James to his hometown out west - "where folks keep their hands in their own pockets" and just-like-that they are all of a sudden in Maverick (in Wyoming, I reckon) where James buys a ranch...has a feud with the local baddie, "Cash" Hawkins (William Elmer) and falls in love with a native girl, Nat-U-Ritch (Princess Red Wing - she of the Winnebago tribe in real life). James and Nat-U-Ritch gets married (the preacher man balks at marrying them at first - due to his miscegenation - and must be persuaded to perform the ceremony at gunpoint lol)!!! Before James and Nat-U-Ritch can say "I do" they have a 5 year old kid. Didn't I tell ya the scene edits in this are JARRINGLY SUDDEN? I'm not kidding!!! Even the ending to THE SQUAW MAN is jarringly sudden...just like this review 4 See more 07/29/2007 An incredibly dull film from legendary director, Cecil B. Demille. The film is the first film ever shot in Hollywood, and it's also probably one of the worst ones. I would say what the movie was about, but I fell asleep every time I tried to watch it. See more Read all reviews

The Squaw Man

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