Bill Hart developed characterizations in his films that were often copied and elaborated on by numerous "Western" Heroes throughout film history. "The Return Of Draw Egan" is one of the signature works of his career.
It opens with an energetic chase scene showing Egan's band of outlaws (Hart often played men on the wrong side of the law) trying to evade a posse of lawmen. A gun battle ensues where the outlaws are seemingly trapped in a remote shack. Hart (Draw Egan) opens a trap door that leads to a tunnel which allows all the men to escape before they are overwhelmed by the peace officers. Egan encourages each man to leave before he follows, which all except one "rogue" outlaw (who will come back later to cross paths with the changed Hart) obeys. Hart himself waits until all the men are safely away before entering the tunnel, touching a dead comrade reverently on his way out.
Fade in to a later time period where Hart enters a saloon in the notoriously dangerous town of Yellow Dog (named after the typical wild dog of the old west), and watches bemused as an overactive barfly challenges his stoicism. Hart (now under the name of Blake) finishes the coward with one well connected blow, and is subsequently offered the much avoided position of town marshal. He takes it for the money and is planning on moving on soon, until he is "stopped" by the fetching daughter of the mayor, whereby he proceeds to settle into respectable life.
Of course all does not go easy, what with the Egan character occasionally showing itself: especially effective is one sequence where the sheriff longingly watches a gang of rowdies terrorizing an upright citizen and wishes he was with them ( he often shows a "Mona Lisa" smile when these feelings come over him), but quickly suppresses the feeling after he realizes his new duties. This inner torment is reminiscent of such later icons as Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott.
And similar to the western movies of Cooper and Scott, little gun play is enacted during the course of this film (until the final showdown, which is appropriately short and brutal). Instead Hart, who also directed this film, relies on subtle gestures and meaningful facial expressions to express his inner torment and move the narrative along. He is a loner who is tired of being alone, a gunman who would rather use the force of his presence than his guns to effect an outcome, a man who wishes to settle down and enjoy a simple life but is uncertain that it will ever happen. Like the best Western Heroes, an enigma.
This is a film that shows it power through quiet introspective images that will grow stronger with each successive viewing.
It opens with an energetic chase scene showing Egan's band of outlaws (Hart often played men on the wrong side of the law) trying to evade a posse of lawmen. A gun battle ensues where the outlaws are seemingly trapped in a remote shack. Hart (Draw Egan) opens a trap door that leads to a tunnel which allows all the men to escape before they are overwhelmed by the peace officers. Egan encourages each man to leave before he follows, which all except one "rogue" outlaw (who will come back later to cross paths with the changed Hart) obeys. Hart himself waits until all the men are safely away before entering the tunnel, touching a dead comrade reverently on his way out.
Fade in to a later time period where Hart enters a saloon in the notoriously dangerous town of Yellow Dog (named after the typical wild dog of the old west), and watches bemused as an overactive barfly challenges his stoicism. Hart (now under the name of Blake) finishes the coward with one well connected blow, and is subsequently offered the much avoided position of town marshal. He takes it for the money and is planning on moving on soon, until he is "stopped" by the fetching daughter of the mayor, whereby he proceeds to settle into respectable life.
Of course all does not go easy, what with the Egan character occasionally showing itself: especially effective is one sequence where the sheriff longingly watches a gang of rowdies terrorizing an upright citizen and wishes he was with them ( he often shows a "Mona Lisa" smile when these feelings come over him), but quickly suppresses the feeling after he realizes his new duties. This inner torment is reminiscent of such later icons as Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott.
And similar to the western movies of Cooper and Scott, little gun play is enacted during the course of this film (until the final showdown, which is appropriately short and brutal). Instead Hart, who also directed this film, relies on subtle gestures and meaningful facial expressions to express his inner torment and move the narrative along. He is a loner who is tired of being alone, a gunman who would rather use the force of his presence than his guns to effect an outcome, a man who wishes to settle down and enjoy a simple life but is uncertain that it will ever happen. Like the best Western Heroes, an enigma.
This is a film that shows it power through quiet introspective images that will grow stronger with each successive viewing.