Pre-Order The Half-Breed (1916) (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

The link below will take you directly to the product on Amazon. If you are using an adblocker you will not see link.

 

[Bert Greene]

I definitely enjoyed Kino's "The Half Breed / The Good Bad Man" Douglas Fairbanks double-feature. Hard to say which film I preferred. Probably the latter, as it was a bit more winsome, and featured the adorable Bessie Love whom I've always liked (Speaking of which, when will Warner Archives finally get around to "The Girl in the Show" -1929?). It was also a kick to see stalwart western character-actor Charles Stevens looking so amazingly young. Always astonishes me how far back some of these guys like Stevens, Bob Kortman, Bud Osborne, and such, go in film history.

Both films had some terrific location work, "Half Breed" in those redwood forests, and "Good Bad Man" out in the desert (with some nifty long shots of riders from a distance). "Half Breed" had a lot going on. Although, Fairbanks wasn't quite as zesty as usual, being a bit stoic, befitting his half-Indian 'outcast' character. Still, some great moments in the film. The scene in which Fairbanks is hiding out fugitive Alma Rubens in his hollowed-tree home, and she mistakenly gets the impression that his invite implies something more, and her reaction of sad, pained defeatedness, is subtle but heartbreaking. Also loved the iris-in intro of flirtatious Jewel Carmen, leading up from her feet right into a close-up of her looking right into the camera. Maybe such intros were more common in the 1910s. I don't really know. But it was quite an attention-grabber.