Brother Bill (1919)

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Director:

Leon De La Mothe

Writer:

Frederick Chapin (writer)

Release Date:

September 1919 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Short | Western

Plot Keywords:

Ranch | Cattle | Rustler | Cowboy | Character Name In Title

Cast

Franklyn Farnum	...	William (Bill) Dexter
Buck Jones	...	Roy Dexter
Louella Maxam	...	Ruth Salisbury
Vester Pegg	...	Nate Salisbury
Bud Osborne	...	Bud McGee

Runtime:

18 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Canyon Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Ninth of twelve episodes in the Franklyn Farnum 2-reel Western series produced by Canyon Pictures Corporation.

Interesting 2-reel western, with the lesser-known Farnum brother (Frankyln) and a young Buck Jones.

I turned up an old 16mm print of this, which lists Franklyn Farnum as the star. It has "art" intertitles, with drawings of the actors on a western background. Both Jones and Farnum pine for the same girl (Maxam, billed here as "Lola Maxam"), and each actor is shown at one point in a reflective moment with her face superimposed next to theirs; a device used earliest in the early Edison/Porter LIFE OF AN AMERICAN FIREMAN. The fights appear improvised to some extent, judging from the impromptu camera movements to follow the actors. The acting is underplayed to some extent (with the exception of the actress in blackface playing the family's Mammy, the only performer not identified in intertitles; she does resemble the hag in DWG's "Orphans").