1921 Directed by Robert Thornby
Santa Fe, a tramp, is saved from a jeering mob in the desert town of Caliente by Annette, the sheriff's daughter; and after adopting Pard he gets a job as a porter in the bank. Santa Fe learns that the leading banker, Coulter, is in league with a band of outlaws, and when Coulter frames Dick Farwell, Annette's fiancé, Dick is suspected of robbery and is captured by the outlaws.
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USA
Outfoxes Itself
Cool, I was just lightly complaining in my review of “From Hand to Mouth” (1919) for something from the online portion of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival more obscure than Harold Lloyd slapstick, and here it is, a silent film that didn’t have any reviews on Letterboxd and elsewhere until this festival and for which its Wikipedia entry, as of this writing, continues to claim the picture is still lost. Like so many other otherwise lost Hollywood productions, however, “The Fox” turned up in the Prague archives. “The largest collection of exported American films come from Národní Filmovy Archiv in the Czech Republic,” as David Pierce says in his research paper, “The Survival of American Silent Feature Films:…
Great to see this once thought lost silent western starring Harry Carey. It was epic and touching and romantic -- all in a tight 71 minutes. This gem brought back to us through the magic of the archives!
A beautiful western with a sensitive performance from Harry Carey! A surprise was seeing Gertrude Olmstead as Sheriff Fraser’s youngest daughter.
Main feature for day one of the online portion of Pordenone was this Harry Carey silent Western, long thought lost but in fact surviving in one print in Czech archive. Carey’s undercover to unravel a bank fraud scheme helmed by the bank’s own president (gasp!) Alan Hale. Carey is, no surprise to those familiar with his talkie work, quite good in his reserved way. Beautiful outdoor photography for the big gunfight scenes in the Mojave Desert. An enjoyable outing.
The Fox runs an unusual course: it builds very slowly, establishing a glut of characters immediately and letting each of their purposes spool out gradually. Harry Carey is appealing as a humble drifter who acquires an abused street kid and tries to make good on his impulsive and hot-blooded ways, but what really impressed me was the last act. All of the paced, deliberate exposition explodes into a tremendous battle, and the rapid-fire action makes the first two-thirds or so seem glacial. While there's a lot to enjoy in the former part of the film, including Carey's chummy rapport with his pint-sized co-star, its rambling groove is interrupted a bit too suddenly by the late spike in action, rendering everything that came before a bit more forgettable. Regardless, I'm so glad this was pulled from film oblivion, and it's a pleasure to engage with what was being enjoyed in movie-houses a century ago.
Long thought to be lost, a print of this silent Western starring character actors Harry Carey and Alan Hale has been found and is scheduled to be shown at this year's Pordenone Silent Film Festival as well as online.
Harry Carey living out the restaurant worker’s dream by dumping mustard, hot sauce, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce into a rude patron’s coffee and serving it to him with a smile
A B-Western story holds back an otherwise exciting and visually beautiful Western. The action scenes are well-directed and shadows are used to great effect in many night scenes.
I've always liked Harry Carey's screen presence as a relaxed but confident hero but it seems that many of his scripts don't do him justice. For instance, in The Fox, we are introduced to a young child who has great chemistry with Carey but then spends large amounts of time without him. Also, a late reveal about Carey's character is clunkily handled almost even to be straight-up farcical.
Fun to see Alan Hale though playing the villain instead of a comic side character.
Le Giornate Del Cinema Muto 2023 - Film #10
Another long thought lost silent starring Harry Carey, The Fox has recently emerged from the Prague archives and now makes it's grand return for the 2023 Pordenone Silent Film Festival. Shot largely in the Mojave desert, it's clear to see why Universal billed The Fox as a Jewel “Super-Western", something also evidenced by the more pronounced runtime, when compared to other Carey outings.
Although nothing remarkable in a narrative or action sense, Carey's performance here is of note and boasts some of the actors' more subtle performative traits. That surprise twist ending was also a rather entertaining reveal.
What an ending. I don’t think anyone saw that coming although the title should’ve been a clue. The entire audience laughed at the reveal. Talk about some deep cover, what with the odd jobs and going to jail. Decent kid performance before Coogan or Cooper steal his thunder. I have to admit he looked sharp in his military school uniform.
