Synopsis
An introductory section recounts the story of the half-breed Lo Dorman's (Fairbanks) parents. His Indian mother, who has been betrayed by his white father, leaves her baby with a sympathetic white man and goes off to a shamed suicide. Years pass, and after the death of his foster father, the townsmen force the grown-up Lo Dorman out of the dead man’s house. Lo moves into the forest where he makes his home inside the trunk of a giant redwood tree.
Visiting the town, he attracts the attention of Nellie (Carmen), a beautiful young white woman, who, fancying him, flirts with him and allows him to embrace her. This enrages Nelle's admirers, especially Sheriff Dunn (De Grasse). Teresa (Rubens), a wild young Mexican woman, has arrived in the town with a patent medicine man. Seeing the medicine man kissing and embracing a prostitute, the jealous Teresa stabs him. Sheriff Dunn tries to arrest her; Teresa stabs him too and flees into the woods. She hides with the tolerant Lo, sharing his living space inside the redwood tree.
Nellie, pretending she is leaving to visit friends but actually searching for Lo, enters the woods. Lo meets her, and they exchange affectionate greetings, but Nellie cannot become involved with a half-breed and leaves him. Dejected, he wanders alone into the woods. Nellie’s suitors, Dunn and the Wells Fargo agent, have followed her. The agent takes Nellie back to the town, and Dunn searches for Lo. He finds Teresa inside the tree. Going through Lo’s possessions, Dunn come upon a letter he had written to Lo’s mother. Stunned, Dunn realizes that he is Lo’s father. A fire in the woods is approaching rapidly, and Teresa attempts to help Dunn escape. Lo returns and although he rescues Teresa, he cannot save Dunn.
Unhappy with his experiences in the area, Lo departs to find another home. Teresa follows him.
Discussion
The scenario of The Half-Breed is based on
In the Carquinez Woods (1883) by Bret Harte, chronicler of life in
Gold Rush California, and aside from it's hopeful ending the film closely follows
the events in the novel. The novel is uncommon in having a
half-breed
protagonist. Harte was disturbed by the way the white population
mistreated minorities and took advantage of Native Americans. In 1860, while he
was living in a small town near Humboldt Bay in Northern California, where the
giant redwoods grow, a semi-official militia of local white men massacred a group
of Wiyot Indians. His outraged editorial in the local paper was answered by death
threats, and he had to leave the area for his own protection. The novel and its
setting reflect Harte’s lingering perturbation about this incident and other
outrages committed against American Indians and other minorities. Harte’s story
contrasts the honest, educated, and trustworthy mixed race Lo Dorman to the
deceitful, prejudiced and ignorant white population of the town. The town’s
population is incapable of appreciating the exceptional qualities of Lo Dorman
simply because he is a half-breed.
The stigma of being half Native American
and half white was such that for many years societal opinion held that only
socially and morally corrupt behavior produced half-breeds,
who
consequently occupied the lowest rung of society.
In the film, the fickle Nellie is attracted to Lo and leads him on, but she is
shallow and ultimately rejects him. Racist societal pressure made it unthinkable
for white women to be seriously interested in half-breeds.
Marriage, or any
type of personal contact, between whites and Native Americans were taboo. The
pairing of Teresa, a Mexican, and Lo was more socially acceptable, since Mexicans
also had lower social status, thus the possibility of the union of these
characters exists at the end of the film. In the novel
In the Carquinez Woods, Lo and Teresa die in the forest fire without
any passages of love. Death resolves their conflicts, releases their spirits, and
brings tranquility. The film ends without any such resolution as Lo and Teresa
depart to uncertain futures.
Contemporary reviewers in Variety and The New York Times ignored the
theme of social prejudice emphasized by the plot and focused their reviews on
Douglas Fairbanks and the magnificent forest setting. The anonymous reviewer in
The New York Times notes that
California was just made and put aside for the coming of motion pictures,
calls Fairbanks a half-breed who looks more like Peter Pan than not,
and
states that Fairbanks has
infrequent opportunities for his talented smile, but his muscles are
starred.
Often wearing only a loincloth, the Lo character enabled Fairbanks to reveal more
of his physique then was ever seen on screen before or after. The
Variety review outlines the plot, notes that
Douglas Fairbanks has another of those sympathy-compelling roles that he played
in The Good Bad Man,
states that
the story is well told in film form…the wonderful forest locations make
it seem most impressive,
and concludes that
Mr. Fairbanks will add a number of new admirers to those who hold him as their
own particular screen favorite.
In 1915, Douglas Fairbanks, a twelve-year Broadway veteran, was starring in a
stage vehicle tailor-made to his personality and athletic skills. Promised that
D.W. Griffith would direct his productions (he never did), Fairbanks accepted a
three-year contract to make films for Harry Aitken's Triangle Motion Picture
Company and its subsidiary Fine Arts Film Company. He quickly became a public
favorite and one of the biggest draws in the movies. In
The Half-Breed, the eighth of twelve features he would make for
Triangle-Fine Arts, Fairbanks drops his typical light-hearted
All-American boy
persona and plays a stern social outcast. He returned to
the lighthearted Doug
image thereafter and avoided dark stories until his
final silent films The Gaucho (1928) and
The Iron Mask (1929).
The Half-Breed features two beautiful nineteen-year-old actresses, Jewel Carmen and Alma Rubens. Triangle-Fine Arts was building up their popularity and showcased each actress with Fairbanks. Sadly, both actresses had shortened careers. In 1918, Jewel Carmen attempted to break her contract with Fox Film Corporation and the ensuing legal wrangling derailed her career. After leaving Fox she made only three more films between 1918 and 1926. After more than a decade of stardom, Alma Rubens' life and career shattered in physical and mental breakdown resulting from drug addiction. She was struggling with her addiction when she died of pneumonia at age 33 in January, 1931.
Director Allan Dwan's career lasted fifty years, starting with dozens of one-reel
short films from 1911-14, including many Westerns starring J. Warren Kerrigan for
The American Film Manufacturing Company (also known as Flying A
Studios).
During his time at Triangle-Fine Arts, Dwan directed films starring Fairbanks,
Dorothy and Lillian Gish, and Norma Talmadge. During the 1920s, he directed
Fairbanks (in Robin Hood and The Iron Mask), Gloria
Swanson, Jack Holt, Madge Bellamy, and many more
stars. Dwan’s career continued unabated into the talking era, directing films
starring Shirley Temple, the Ritz Brothers, Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis O'Keefe, John
Wayne, Nelson Eddy and many others. His extensive filmography (more than sixty
silent features and seventy talkies) includes comedies, dramas, musicals, and
numerous Westerns. He also produced and wrote stories for some of his films. Aside
from some of his work with Fairbanks, Dwan directed few classics, but his films
are well-made, briskly paced, and enjoyable.
Further Reading