The Squaw Man | |
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![]() A scene from The Squaw Man | |
Directed by | Cecil B. DeMille Oscar C. Apfel |
Screenplay by | Cecil B. DeMille Oscar C. Apfel |
Based on | The Squaw Man by Edwin Milton Royle |
Produced by | Cecil B. DeMille Oscar C. Apfel Jesse L. Lasky |
Starring | Dustin Farnum |
Cinematography | Alfredo Gandolfi |
Edited by | Mamie Wagner |
Production company | |
Distributed by | State Rights [1] |
Release date |
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Running time | 74 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | Silent English intertitles |
Budget | $40,000 [2] |
Box office | $533,446 |
The Squaw Man (known as The White Man in the United Kingdom) is a 1914 American silent Western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar C. Apfel, and starring Dustin Farnum. It was DeMille's directorial debut and one of the first feature films to be shot in what is now Hollywood.
James Wynnegate (Dustin Farnum) and his cousin, Henry (Monroe Salisbury), are upper class Englishmen and trustees for an orphans' fund. Henry loses money in a bet at a derby and embezzles money from "the fund" to pay off his debts. When war office officials are informed of the money missing they pursue James, but he successfully escapes to Wyoming. There, James rescues Nat-U-Ritch (Lillian St. Cyr), daughter to the chief of the Ute tribe, from local outlaw Cash Hawkins (William Elmer). Hawkins plans to exact his revenge on James, but has his plans thwarted by Nat-U-Ritch, who shoots him dead. Later, James has an accident in the mountains and needs to be rescued. Nat-U-Ritch discovers him and carries him back to safety. As she nurses him back to health, they fall in love and later have a child.
Meanwhile, during an exploration of the Alps, Henry falls off a cliff. Before he succumbs to his injuries, Henry signs a letter of confession proclaiming James's innocence in the embezzlement. Before Henry's widow, Lady Diana (Winifred Kingston) and others arrive in Wyoming to tell James about the news, the Sheriff recovers the murder weapon that was used against Cash Hawkins in James and Nat-U-Ritch's home. Realizing that their son is not safe, the couple sends him away, leaving them both distraught. Facing the possibilities of losing both her son and her freedom, Nat-U-Ritch decides to take her own life instead. The movie ends with both the chief of the Ute tribe and James embracing her body. [3]
The only onscreen filmmaking credit is "Picturized by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar C. Apfel." The film was adapted by DeMille and Apfel from the 1905 stage play of the same name by Edwin Milton Royle, and produced by DeMille, Apfel, and Jesse L. Lasky for the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, its first film. [1]
This first screen version of the story was the legendary DeMille's first movie assignment. It was also the first feature-length film shot in California, partly in what became Hollywood. Film historians agree that shorts had previously been filmed in Hollywood, with D. W. Griffith's In Old California (1910) considered the earliest. DeMille rented what is now known as the Lasky-DeMille Barn at the southeast corner of Selma and Vine Streets to serve as their studio and production office; today it is home to the Hollywood Heritage Museum. [4] Shooting on The Squaw Man began December 29, 1913, [1] and finished January 20, 1914.
DeMille wanted to emphasize the outdoors and wanted to shoot the movie in exotic scenery and great vistas. Initially he traveled to Flagstaff, Arizona to film the movie. After seeing the vast amount of mountains near Flagstaff, the production was moved to Los Angeles. Harbor scenes were shot in San Pedro, California and the western saloon set was built beside railroad tracks in the San Fernando Valley. Footage of cattle on the open range was shot at Keen Camp near Idyllwild, California, while snow scenes were shot at Mount Palomar. [5] Cecil B. DeMille felt that lighting in a movie was extremely important and viewed it as the visual and emotional foundation to build his image. He believed that lighting was to a film as "music is to an opera". [3]
The Squaw Man went on to become the only movie successfully filmed three times by the same director/producer, DeMille. He filmed a silent remake in 1918, and a talkie version in 1931. The Squaw Man was 74 minutes long and generated $244,700 in profit. [3] [5]
The main character James Wynnegate played by Dustin Farnum, was cast as the hero for the film. Farnum was a notable Broadway star and his wife in real life Winifred Kingston was also a well-known actress. She played the English love interest. [3] Red Wing (real name Lillian St. Cyr) was born into the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska on the Winnebago Reservation, and she played the American Indian wife. [6]
Non-Native American actor Joseph Singleton played the role of Tabywana, Nat-U-Ritch's father. Lillian St. Cyr of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska was cast to play the role of Nat-U-Ritch, a member of the Ute tribe. She is also known as "Princess Redwing". St. Cyr along with her husband James Young Deer (of the Nanticoke people of Delaware) [7] have been regarded as one of the first "Native American power couple" in Hollywood, along with Mona Darkfeather and her husband, director Frank E. Montgomery. [8] DeMille had selected Lillian St. Cyr, but his first choice had been Darkfeather, who was not available. [5]
During the early silent film era, films based on Native Americans were popular. The central theme of this film was miscegenation. In the state of California, anti-miscegenation laws existed until 1948; however, while African-Americans couldn't legally marry whites in California during filming, marriages between Native Americans and whites were permitted. Though there were Native American actors, whites were mostly cast as Native characters. [9]
During the early teens, Young Deer and Lillian St. Cyr helped to transform how Native American characters were represented. The characters they created were sympathetic in complex ways, although other studios such as Kalem Company were also attempting to accurately portray Natives in film. [9] However, other scholars argue that Native American-themed silent films did not alter in any way the dominant perception of Natives themselves. Many films displayed the Native American experience from many different perspectives and did involve Native American writers, filmmakers, and actors during this time period.
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of American cinema and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. His films were distinguished by their epic scale and by his cinematic showmanship. His silent films included social dramas, comedies, Westerns, farces, morality plays, and historical pageants. He was an active Freemason and member of Prince of Orange Lodge #16 in New York City.
The year 1914 in film involved some significant events, including the debut of Cecil B. DeMille as a director.
The Hollywood Heritage Museum, also known as the "Hollywood Studio Museum," is located on Highland Ave. in Hollywood, California, United States.
Hollywood is a British television documentary miniseries produced by Thames Television and originally broadcast on ITV in 1980. Written and directed by film historians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, it explored the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and their cultural impact during the silent film era of the 1910s and 1920s. At the 1981 BAFTA TV Awards, the series won for Best Original Television Music and was nominated for Best Factual Series, Best Film Editing and Best Graphics.
Jesse Louis Lasky was an American pioneer motion picture producer who was a key founder of what was to become Paramount Pictures, and father of screenwriter Jesse L. Lasky Jr.
Dustin Lancy Farnum was an American singer, dancer, and actor on the stage and in silent films. Although he played a wide variety of roles, he tended toward westerns and became one of the bigger stars of the genre.
Julia Faye Maloney, known professionally as Julia Faye, was an American actress of silent and sound films. She was known for her appearances in more than 30 Cecil B. DeMille productions. Her various roles ranged from maids and ingénues to vamps and queens.
Ray Mala was a prominent Alaska Native actor. He was one of Hollywood's Native American movie actors along with Lillian St. Cyr, Jesse Cornplanter, Chief Yowlachie, William Eagle Shirt, and Will Rogers who also had successful careers during that time. Mala's career peaked in the 1930s and he was best known for his lead role in Republic Pictures' 14-part serial Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island (1936) following his feature role in MGM's Eskimo, directed by Woody Van Dyke. He was named a "Top Ten Alaskan" by TIME Magazine in 2009.
The Virginian is a 1914 American silent Western film based on the 1902 novel The Virginian by Owen Wister. The film was adapted from the successful 1903–04 theatre play The Virginian, on which Wister had collaborated with playwright Kirke La Shelle. The Virginian starred Dustin Farnum in the title role, a role he reprised from the original play. It was directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
The Squaw Man is a 1931 American pre-Code Western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It was his third time filming the same play but the first in sound. It stars Warner Baxter in the leading role.
Oscar C. Apfel was an American film actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. He appeared in more than 160 films between 1913 and 1939, and also directed 94 films between 1911 and 1927.
Joan the Woman is a 1916 American epic silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Geraldine Farrar as Joan of Arc. The film premiered on Christmas Day in 1916. This was DeMille's first historical drama. The screenplay is based on Friedrich Schiller's 1801 play Die Jungfrau von Orleans. This film was considered to be the "first cinematic spectacle about Joan of Arc."
The Squaw Man is a 1918 American silent Western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It is a remake of DeMille's 1914 film of the same name, which is based upon a 1905 play by Edwin Milton Royle. The film was reportedly made as an experiment to prove DeMille's theory that a good film is based on a good story. It cost $40,000 to make and grossed $350,000. It would be remade again by DeMille in 1931.
The Squaw Man is a 1905 western/drama stage play in four acts written by Edwin Milton Royle.
James Young Deer, also known as J. Younger Johnson or Jim Young Deer, was actually born James Young Johnson in Washington, D.C. Although he was identified in the early Hollywood trade paper Moving Picture World as of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, his ancestry is of the Nanticoke people of Delaware. He became an early film actor, director, writer, and producer. He is believed to be the first Native American filmmaker/producer in Hollywood. Together with his wife and partner Lillian St. Cyr, Winnebago, the couple were labeled an "influential force" in the production of one-reel Westerns during the first part of the silent film era. Their films, along with several others of the silent era, were notable for portraying Native Americans in a positive light.
White Fawn's Devotion: A Play Acted by a Tribe of Red Indians in America is a 1910 American short dramatic silent film. Although a few writers believe the film features Young Deer's wife, Lillian St. Cyr, otherwise known as Princess Red Wing as "White Fawn", the lead woman does not fit St. Cyr's description. IMDb now identifies the lead actress as Lucille Young. The movie was shot in New Jersey at 24fps.
Red Wing was an American actress of the silent era. She and her husband James Young Deer have been dubbed by some as one of the first Native American Hollywood "power couple(s)" along with Mona Darkfeather and her actor/director husband Frank E. Montgomery. St. Cyr was born on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska.
Braveheart is a 1925 American silent contemporary Western film directed by Alan Hale Sr. and starring Rod La Rocque. The story focuses on members of a tribe of Indians who are being intimidated by the owners of a canning company seeking to violate a treaty protecting the tribe's fishing grounds. Braveheart is a remake of the 1914 film Strongheart directed by James Kirkwood Sr. and produced by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.
The Circus Man is a 1914 silent film produced by Jesse Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Oscar Apfel and written by Cecil B. DeMille from a story based on the novel The Rose in the Ring by George Barr McCutcheon. It is preserved at the Library of Congress.
Cameo Kirby is a 1914 American drama silent film directed by Oscar Apfel and written by Clara Beranger and William C. deMille. The film stars Dustin Farnum, Fred Montague, James Neill, Jode Mullally, Winifred Kingston and Dick La Reno. It is based on the play Cameo Kirby by Booth Tarkington and Harry Leon Wilson. The film was released on December 24, 1914, by Paramount Pictures.
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