The Testing Block

William S. Hart is an outlaw terrorizing a gold-mining town. When a traveling show comes by, he's entranced by violinist Eva Novak, and his gang busts up; at the same time, the show's manager runs away with the money. The movie skips ahead five years. Hart is a placer miner, and he and Miss Novak have a son in Richard Headrick. Along comes J. Gordon Russell. He was a member of Hart's gang, was beaten to a pulp by him, and wants his revenge. He convinces Miss Novak that Hart is about to go outlaw again, and she flees to Sacramento. Soon, their child is sick, and Hart searches for money for a doctor, and goes wild.

Those of you who remember Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN will notice the similarities in the plot; Eastwood often played the Good Bad Man. Hart's movies usually ended with his redemption, but here, as in Eastwood's film, we find that the bad may be interred with their bones, because it lingers there.

It's a pretty good movie, with Hart's usual crew, Lambert Hillyer directing and Joe August in charge of the camera. August gets to strut his stuff in the night fight at the outlaw camp, where, vastly undercranked, Hart beats down four men seriatim. It doesn't add much to the Hart movies, but it's also nothing to be ashamed of either.