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Foundation of the medium, "swappin' stories," thus a rehearsal of Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood and a seed of Penn's Billy the Kid (The Left Handed Gun). As "Passin' Through," the star dims his grin for the melancholy outlaw with Freudian baggage. "Queer cuss! He makes a specialty of helpin' kids that's born in shame." His wanderings take him to the Wyoming hideout of the bandit with a lupine nickname (Sam De Grasse), where resides a maiden (Bessie Love) "like a white flower among poisonous weeds." In nearby Maverick City the lawman is far more interested in doing rope tricks than in leading posses, the hero in an elated mood strides into the saloon with revolvers blazing: "Get out of my way! I'm in love!" Allan Dwan in the sagebrush valley, running parallel with Ford in the molding of the Western. (Many genre standbys are already in place one year ahead of Straight Shooting.) Mom (Mary Alden) is remembered as a skittish matron in iris-encircled portraiture, cf. Lynch's The Elephant Man, a flashback reveals a robust frontier gal wizened by the murder of her beloved. Multiple planes figure in indoors staging (a trio of figures in a medium shot with dancing couples seen through a door in the background), distant views give sandy expanses across which desperados swarm. Victor Fleming learns his trade behind the camera, D.W. Griffith's supervision means the pale heroine trembling as a swarthy hand creeps into the frame. Moving technique to the very end, as Fairbanks rides away from close-up to long shot. "If any of your galoots want me, you'll find me at the edge of the horizon." With Pomeroy Cannon, Joseph Singleton, George Beranger, and Fred Burns. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |