John Ford and Harry Carey: Universal Westerns, 1919-1921

Carey's Name and Character: Cheyenne Harry, millionaire ranch owner

The setting changes from a western ranch to New York City where Carey's cowboy millionaire marries a girl of New York's smart, but poor, set. The reviewer in "Variety" gave the film a rating of "fair". He wrote that the film lacked spirit for Carey and Gerber and poorly blended the West with 5th Ave. He commented that the film was a universal special only in being 6, rather than 5, reels.

Carey's Name and Character: Cheyenne Harry, cattle rustler, range rider

The Canadian setting provided the filmmakers with picturesque locations, such as a lake in the woods, snow scenes in mountains, and the Natives catching fish in a pool. This forested scenery was unlike the open country of the American west where Cheyenne Harry usually roamed. The reviewer in "Variety" complimented the gorgeous long-distance photography. Although the setting is Canada, the film was probably mostly or entirely shot in the higher altitudes of the mountains surrounding Los Angeles.

Ford and Carey mixed comedy, romance, and pathos with plenty of action. The action included escapes by horseback and canoe, a big fight with the whiskey runners, and the final fierce fight at the edge of a cliff. A humorous characterization was provided by the affable J. Farrell McDonald as the fighting priest. The drunken Harry and Chief beat a rhythmic serenade on whiskey barrels.

The social code of the time allowed Harry to carry on a mild flirtation with the Indian girl, but he could only unite with a white woman. A union between the white woman and the half-breed would have been unthinkable, a disgrace for her under any circumstances.

Carey's Name and Character: Cheyenne Harry, range rider

Lawrence Reid writing in the "Motion Picture News" headlines his paragraph about the film "Character study of primitive emotion and act of self defense." Reid characterizes the plot as an example of simple love and devotion; a quantity of sentimental interest and pathos is attached to Harry's mother and brother. Schade provides the usual love interest. In the end the hero must use a gun.

Although this is Bernard McConville's only credit for a Ford/Carey film, he wrote nearly 100 stories and scenarios in a 30 year career that began in 1915. During the silent era, McConville wrote stories for a variety of film genres. After 1929, his scenarios are nearly all for B-westerns.

Carey's Name and Character: Cheyenne Harry, cattleman, outlaw

The reviewer in "Variety" describes the film's plot as "a regular, corking, snorting, melodramatic story", "full of action, suspense, and excellent detail" "Seena Owen fails to make the most of her part; she is more suited to drawing room roles than to light innocence." Owen appeared in few westerns and was better suited for contemporary roles in which her make-up and costumes were showier than would be appropriate for a demure, western school teacher. She only made one film with Carey. Patsy Smith in her "Variety" column, "Among the Women", described Owen as an attractive schoolmarm, appropriately in period with her velvet dress and cape. Smith appreciated the character work of an older actress, "a real, old fashioned prosperous, half-foreign country woman in voluminous brocade, lace collar, and long ear pendents, a pipe in her mouth and a heavy cane clasped in strong hands, a truthful portrayal of the type." Characters in westerns were rarely given any notice in "Among the Women" or similar columns.

Carey's Name and Character: John Oakhurst/Square Shootin' Harry Lanyon, square gamblers

The story of "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" as portrayed in the film is greatly altered from the plot of the short story as written by Bret Harte. The only shared story points are the name of the gambler, John Oakhurst, and the snow storm that traps the characters. In the short story, four people, two prostitutes, the town drunkard, and Oakhurst, a gambler, are put out of the town of Poker Flat. An engaged couple join the four outcasts. The drunkard runs off with their mules, leaving the others trapped in the snow. The young man goes off to get help. The women die of cold and hunger. Oakhurst, despairing of escape, commits suicide. Harte describes Oakhurst as the strongest and the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat.

The screenwriter has rewritten the plot into two conventional love triangles with the story involving Oakhurst embedded in the main storyline. Carey plays a self sacrificing gambler and a successful lover, but neither persona is found in the original story. Carey's characterization as a professional gambler, rather than his usual range rider, meant a change in his costume. Advertising pictures for the film show Carey in a white shirt and tie, dark suit and rakish hat, flourishing a cigar.

Born in Albany New York in 1836, Bret Harte moved to California in 1853. He wrote about the gold mining camps and the people who lived in them. Harte returned East in 1871. He lived many years in Europe. He wrote about many different places and people but his success and fame rest on his stories about gold rush California.

Carey's Name and Character: Cheyenne Harry Henderson, cattleman

After the complex plot and production requirements of The Outcasts of Poker Flats, Ford and Carey produced a film with a simple plot and production methods.

G. B. Lancaster was the pseudonym of Edith Joan Lyttelton, who was born in Tasmania and grew up in New Zealand. Edith Lyttelton was the most widely read New Zealand author of the first half of the 20th Century. She wrote novels and hundreds of short stories, mostly about Australia, New Zealand, or Canada. Several of her stories were adapted for films. This film, however, has an original screenplay that she wrote with H. T, Streck, her only screenplay for a Ford/Carey film.

The Variety reviewer wrote "the film hits the high spots all the way, action, mystery, love, excellent photography, capable direction. Ford overlooks few bets in handling Carey who has dignity, force and is the master of his roles."

The reviewer also notes that the brother's suicide by riding his horse over a cliff thrilled the audience.

Carey's Name and Character: Cheyenne Harry, ranch owner

Despite the title's reference to Harry as a gunfighter, the film had less action and greater emphasis on domestic interactions than was usual for a Ford/Carey film. By this point they had developed a lot of scenarios for Carey, and new approaches were probably difficult to work up. Ford and Carey wrote the story; Harold (Hal) Hoadley wrote the scenario. Hal was the son of scenarist C, B, Hoadley who wrote the scenarios for nearly fifty shorts. Hal Hoadley wrote scenarios for only eight feature films. Both Hoadleys had ceased writing by 1921.

Carey's Name and Character: Cheyenne Harry, outlaw, robber

The film was released during December 1919. In his notes for exhibitors, the author of the service page in "Moving Picture Weekly" promotes the film is an artistic production appropriate for the Christmas season. As an example of an artistic touch, the reviewer mentions the cross shaped giant cactus before which the three godfathers swear to cherish the baby.

The story was adapted from a 1913 novel, "Three Godfathers" by western novelist Peter B. Kyne. The novel has been adapted for the screen several times. Carey starred in a 1916 version, named 3 Godfathers, directed by Edward LeSaint. The first talkie version Hell's Heroes (1929) starred Charles Bickford, directed by William Wyler. In 1936, Chester Morris starred in 3 Godfathers, directed by Richard Boleslawski.

Ford told Peter Bogdanovich that Marked Men was a favorite of his early films, and he remembered it very well. They put 3½ weeks into making it, longer than usual. He liked the story so well that he wanted to remake it. Ford's 1948 remake, titled 3 Godfathers starred John Wayne, with Harry Carey Jr. as one of the three men. The title sequence dedicates the film "To the memory of HARRY CAREY, Bright Star of the early western sky." In the background a horseman, his clothes and hat the same as Carey wore, rides up a slope, stops, rises slightly in his saddle, takes off his hat and rubs his head, sits back with a hand on the horse behind the saddle, and moves around slightly.

Peter B. Kyne, American novelist, published 25 novels and 1000 short stories between 1909 and 1940. His wide ranging literary interests included war stories, sea stories, westerns, hunting stories, business romances, and horse racing stories. More than 100 films have been made from his work, beginning in 1914. "The Valley of the Giants" (1918), a story of the California redwoods, has also been adapted to multiple films. Silent star Wallace Reid starred in a 1919 version.

Carey's Name and Character: Ohio, the Stranger, gambler

McElliott, reviewer of the Moving Picture Weekly, pointed out the "homely angularity" of Carey's features and the "sincere honesty" of his behavior. "A rough diamond who has his corners polished off by a pretty, fiery and earnest maiden. She burns to reform the town and also the stranger."

Carey's Name and Character: John Wesley Pringle, wandering range-rider

Mignonne Golden, playing Stella, was Carey's sister-in-law. She appeared with him on stage in his vaudeville act. This is one of the few Ford/Carey films without a love interest. Probably, Carey did not want to be romantically involved with his sister-in-law, even if only in a movie.

Eugene Manlove Rhodes, American writer, lived in New Mexico during the early years of cattle ranching. Rhodes worked on a ranch and observed the ways of the cowboy. His novels and short stories, mostly westerns, depict the lives of working cowboys.

Carey's Name and Character: Bart Carson, range rider, cowboy

The snow scenes with the train were shot on the scenic Southern Pacific RR tracks near the town of Truckee in the Sierra Nevada. Courtney Ryley Cooper had a varied career as a American circus performer, newspaper reporter, publicist, and a writer of over 30 novels, many short stories, magazine articles, and non-fiction works. Many of his stories concerned either the circus or urban crime. His interest in crime brought him a friendship with J. Edgar Hoover, and he published books and articles about the new Federal Bureau of Investigation. This film is based on a western Christmas story written for Red Book Magazine.