On the Night Stage

On arrival to a town, a pastor converts, then falls in love with, a saloon dancer, the once girlfriend of William S. Hart's character. Nearly half this early feature-length film is the sequence where the pastor converts the saloon dancer, while Hart drinks, then fights, to reconcile himself over the matter--all within the saloon. It's good pacing, but not much else happens. There's some supposed dilemma that Hart has over the conflict between his thievery and his new friendship with the pastor--hardly stirring. Along with "The Bargain", this was one of Hart's first feature-length Westerns. Both begin with a theatrical introduction of the actors and then a scene of Hart robbing a stagecoach. It took a few minutes into "On the Night Stage" before I was sure I wasn't somehow watching "The Bargain" again.