Redskin (film)

Last updated

Redskin
RedSkin2.jpg
theatrical release poster
Directed by Victor Schertzinger
Written byJulian Johnson
Story by Elizabeth Pickett Chevalier
Produced by J.G. Bachmann
Starring Richard Dix
Cinematography Edward Cronjager
Technicolor: [1]
Ray Rennahan
Edward Estabrook
Edited by Otho Lovering
Music by J.S. Zamecnik
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Famous Lasky Corp.
Release date
  • February 23, 1929 (1929-02-23)(US)
Running time
81 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSound (Synchronized)
English Intertitles

Redskin is a 1929 American sound film with a synchronized musical score and sound effects, filmed partially in Technicolor. Its final six minutes were shown in Magnascope, [2] an enlarged-screen projection novelty. The film, directed by Victor Schertzinger, stars Richard Dix and was produced and released by Paramount Famous Lasky Corp. Though not well remembered among the general public, the film is regarded highly by film historians for presenting sympathetic portrayals of Native Americans in the silent film era. [3]

Contents

Plot

After years of attending preparatory school and college in the Eastern United States, Wing Foot (Richard Dix), who after graduating finds out that he is an outcast in an overwhelmingly white society because of his race, returns to his Navajo tribe and renounces their customs and beliefs, becoming an outcast among his own people. He later secretly visits the village of a rival tribe in order to see Corn Blossom (Julie Carter), his sweetheart, who has also been to school in the East. Her people discover his presence, and he is forced to flee into the desert, where he discovers oil. White prospectors also find the oil, and Wing Foot races them to the claim office, filing his claim first. Faced with marriage to a man she does not love, Corn Blossom takes refuge in the Navajo village. Her people come to take her back, and a pitched battle between the tribes is averted only when Wing Foot arrives and tells both tribes of the new good fortune of the Indian nations. He then claims Corn Blossom as his own.

Cast

Source: [1]

Music

The film featured a theme song entitled “Redskin” by Harry D. Kerr (words) and J. S. Zamecnik (music).

Production

Technicolor was used for the scenes taking place on the Indians' land, while black-and-white (sepia-toned in the original projection prints) was used for the scenes set in the white man's world. Roughly three-fourths of the film is in color. [4] Location shooting took place in Canyon de Chelly. [2]

Home video

Redskin is currently available in the United States on disc 4 of the DVD collection Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900-1934. At the time of release, only some of the original Vitaphone type soundtrack discs (reels 1, 3, and 8) were available and so much of the film is presented without audio. An alternative modern piano soundtrack was also presented on the release. Soundtrack discs for reels 2, 4, 5, and 7 have been located but have not yet been paired with the film.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">35 mm movie film</span> Standard theatrical motion picture film gauge

35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. In motion pictures that record on film, 35 mm is the most commonly used gauge. The name of the gauge is not a direct measurement, and refers to the nominal width of the 35 mm format photographic film, which consists of strips 1.377 ± 0.001 inches (34.976 ± 0.025 mm) wide. The standard image exposure length on 35 mm for movies is four perforations per frame along both edges, which results in 16 frames per foot of film.

<i>The Rogue Song</i> 1930 film

The Rogue Song is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic and musical film that tells the story of a Russian bandit who falls in love with a princess, but takes his revenge on her when her brother rapes and kills his sister. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production was directed by Lionel Barrymore and released in two versions, with and without sound. Hal Roach wrote and directed the Laurel and Hardy sequences and was not credited. The film stars Metropolitan Opera singer Lawrence Tibbett—who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance—and Catherine Dale Owen. Laurel and Hardy were third-billed; their sequences were filmed at the last minute and interspersed throughout the film in an attempt to boost its potential box-office appeal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Movie projector</span> Device for showing motion picture film

A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying motion picture film by projecting it onto a screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras. Modern movie projectors are specially built video projectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lost film</span> Feature or short film that is no longer known to exist

A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive.

<i>Mystery of the Wax Museum</i> 1933 film by Michael Curtiz

Mystery of the Wax Museum is a 1933 American pre-Code mystery-horror film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, and Frank McHugh. It was produced and released by Warner Bros. and filmed in two-color Technicolor; Doctor X and Mystery of the Wax Museum were the last two dramatic fiction films made using this process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navajo</span> Native American people of the United States

The Navajo are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.

<i>Show Boat</i> (1929 film) 1929 film

Show Boat is a 1929 American pre-Code sound part-talkie romantic drama film based on the 1926 novel Show Boat by Edna Ferber. The film initially did not use the 1927 stage musical of the same name as a source, but scenes were later added into the film incorporating two of the songs from the musical as well as other songs. Many of these songs from the stage show were featured in a special prologue that was added to the picture before it was released. This film was produced and released by Universal. Like the majority of films during the early sound era, a silent version was made for movie theatres that had not yet converted to sound.

<i>Gold Diggers of Broadway</i> Partially lost 1929 pre-Code American musical film

Gold Diggers of Broadway is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Winnie Lightner and Nick Lucas. Distributed by Warner Bros., the film is the second all-talking, all-Technicolor feature-length film.

<i>Paris</i> (1929 film) 1929 film

Paris is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film, featuring Irène Bordoni. It was filmed with Technicolor sequences: four of the film's ten reels were originally photographed in Technicolor.

<i>Show Boat</i> (1951 film) 1951 film by George Sidney, Roger Edens

Show Boat is a 1951 American musical romantic drama film, based on the 1927 stage musical of the same name by Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II, and the 1926 novel by Edna Ferber. It was made by MGM, adapted for the screen by John Lee Mahin, produced by Arthur Freed and directed by George Sidney.

<i>Paramount on Parade</i> 1930 pre-Code revue film

Paramount on Parade is a 1930 all-star American pre-Code revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H. Knopf, Frank Tuttle, and Victor Schertzinger—all supervised by the production supervisor, singer, actress, and songwriter Elsie Janis.

<i>Hardboiled Rose</i> 1929 film

Hardboiled Rose is a 1929 American part-talkie romantic drama film directed by F. Harmon Weight and released by Warner Bros. It starred Myrna Loy, William Collier, Jr., and John Miljan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Technicolor</span> Color motion picture process

Technicolor is a series of color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.

<i>The Vanishing American</i> 1925 film

The Vanishing American is a 1925 American silent Western film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by George B. Seitz and starred Richard Dix and Lois Wilson, recently paired in several screen dramas by Paramount. The film is based on the 1925 novel The Vanishing American by Zane Grey. It was remade as a 1955 film starring Scott Brady and Audrey Totter.

The Treasures from American Film Archives series of DVDs is produced by the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF), a nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress in 1997. The NFPF publishes these DVD sets, with accompanying booklets and extensive commentary, to promote public access to the films preserved by the American archival community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Pickett Chevalier</span> American novelist

Elizabeth Pickett Chevalier (1896-1984), known earlier in her career as Elizabeth Pickett, was an American writer best known for her 1942 novel, the bestseller Drivin' Woman, which was promoted as a novel in the vein of Gone with the Wind. In her earlier career, she was also a silent short-film director and a screenwriter who wrote scenarios and titles for Fox Film Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Cronjager</span> American cinematographer

Edward Cronjager was an American cinematographer whose career spanned from the silent era through the 1950s. He came from a family of cinematographers, with his father, uncle, and brother all working in the film industry behind the camera. His work covered over 100 films and included projects on the small screen towards the end of his career. He filmed in black and white and color mediums, and his work received nominations for seven Academy Awards over three decades, although he never won the statue.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Redskin at the American Film Institute Catalog
  2. 1 2 "Notes" on TCM.com
  3. "Why Did the Washington Redskins Choose the Name "Redskins" in the First Place, Rather than Some Other Native American Name? – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog". August 21, 2013.
  4. Redskin at SilentEra