Volume II: Filmography

 

THE GIRL OF THE NORTHERN WOODS

 

June 3, 1910 (Friday)

Length: 935 feet

Character: Drama

Director: Barry O'Neil

Cast: Anna Rosemond (Lucy Dane), Frank H. Crane (Will Harding, the surveyor)

Location: "In real mountains in real blizzard weather," according to a news release. As an article in the New Rochelle Pioneer stated that the film was produced in New Rochelle, it must have been made during the winter, several months before its June release.

Note: It was announced earlier that this date would mark the first release of a Thanhouser film through the Motion Picture Distribution and Sales Company, but before the event occurred the arrangement was cancelled. Later, the arrangement was reinstituted, and many Thanhouser advertisements bore the Sales Company logotype.

 

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, June 4, 1910:

"This picture tells the story of Lucy Dane, a Canadian lumberman's daughter, and of Will Harding's love for her. Will is a worthy young surveyor and Lucy feels honored to have his love, and returns it. José, halfbreed trapper, adores Lucy and necessarily dislikes Will, whom he correctly counts his successful rival. More, he bears Will a grudge for responding to Lucy's cries for help when he forced his attentions on her in the lonely neck of the woods. His chance to even matters with Will come shortly when he fastens on the surveyor's responsibility for the shooting of the latter's assistant, of which the halfbreed is himself guilty, having shot the assistant from ambush in mistake for Will.

"José claims he witnessed Will's alleged deed and his falsehoods are believed by the lumbermen. Rarely are the courts resorted to in that portion of the North where these events transpired and the rough lumbermen quickly decide to lynch Will. Lucy hears of the fate intended for her sweetheart and cuts his bonds. Further, she sends the lumbermen off in the wrong direction when they set out to recapture Will. The fugitive is spied by the halfbreed, who steals up from behind and attempts to knife him. The surveyor turns just in time, and in the ensuing struggle the halfbreed is wounded and falls over a precipice. At this juncture Will is retaken by the lumbermen.

"They are leading him to his execution, when the faithful Lucy encounters her sweetheart and whispers: 'Ask for a drink at the brook!' Will follows her suggestion, and on stooping to drink finds a revolver which Lucy has placed there for his use. But he is overpowered when he attempts to use the gun and despite Lucy's effort seems doomed to die. José, the guilty halfbreed, dying at the bottom of the precipice, calls for help. His cries are heard by Lucy, who responds and finds José expiring and repentant. He wishes to clear his conscious before facing his Maker and tells Lucy that he shot Will's assistant. He puts his confession in writing and, relieved, passes peacefully away. In the meantime the lumbermen have completed the preparations that will make an innocent man pay the penalty of another man's crime. Already the noose is about Will's neck and a death prayer on his lips and then, in the nick of time, Lucy arrives with the precious confession, and Will gathers his faithful sweetheart to him in the tenderest scene that has ever closed a thrilling picture."

 

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, June 4, 1910:

"Miss Rosemond and Frank Crane are seen at their best in The Girl of the Northern Woods. The picture is a logical warm weather release, in that the scenes are bound in ice and snow and should keep the spectator cool. And the snow isn't scrap paper or the ice cardboard (well painted), either! To get a good winter picture for summer release, producer O'Neil took his actors into real mountains and real blizzard weather - 'twas better to brave the blast than fake the film.

"The story of the picture centers about the girl, of course, reveals how a treacherous halfbreed and a young surveyor fought for her hand. The girl (Miss Rosemond) prefers the surveyor (Frank Crane). The surveyor is walking through the wilderness with his assistant when the latter drops with a bullet in his heart. At the instigation of the halfbreed, the lumberman charges the surveyor with killing his comrade, and things look black for him until the girl obtains a confession from the guilty man, who is none other than the halfbreed himself, and arrives with it at the lumberman's camp in time to prevent the hanging of her lover. The picture is not a thriller, but a high-class drama that may thrill you through and through."

 

MODERN SYNOPSIS

(from incomplete surviving print)

(Library of Congress)

 

THE GIRL SPURNS THE HALF BREED

The setting is in the woods in winter, with snow covering the ground. The girl (no character names are used in the subtitles or otherwise in the film, therefore unless a moviegoer read a printed synopsis beforehand, he would not know the names assigned to them) rejects a halfbreed woodsman who comes to her cabin in the woods. She retreats into the cabin with her father.

 

THE FIRST MEETING OF THE YOUNG SURVEYOR AND THE GIRL

At the spring where the girl has come for water, the halfbreed accosts and kisses her. A surveyor, who is working nearby with his partner, comes to her rescue and escorts her back to her cabin, shakes her hand, and bids her adieu. The girl looks after him longingly as he returns to his partner, who is standing near a surveying transit.

The girl comes to visit the surveyors, and the surveyor's partner derides him for being attracted to the young lady. The girl and the surveyor leave, holding a basket between them. The halfbreed, apparently crazed, runs up to the remaining surveyor, who has remained with his transit, and then dashes off in search of the romantic couple.

 

FRIENDSHIP RIPENS INTO LOVE

Following a walk in the snowy woods, the lovebirds return to the remaining surveyor. After they embrace, the remaining surveyor laughs at his partner for being in love. The moonstruck partner jokingly kicks his cohort.

 

THE AMBUSH

The halfbreed, carrying a rifle, hides in the woods as the two surveyors approach.

 

THE FRIEND RECEIVES THE BULLET INTENDED FOR THE YOUNG SURVEYOR

The surveyor's partner is shot and drops to the snow. The surveyor attempts to revive him, but in vain. The halfbreed, who has been hiding behind a large rock, runs away in the distance. The halfbreed appears to hide a small object in a stump or rock, after which he continues his flight. The halfbreed reaches a lumber camp and arouses the inhabitants, who are lying around a campfire. They all run off with the halfbreed to the scene of the killing.

 

THE FALSE ACCUSATION: "I SAW HIM KILL HIS FRIEND"

The halfbreed and three lumbermen come to the prostrate surveyor and his friend, who is still trying to revive him. The halfbreed accuses the surveyor of murder, and the lumbermen tie the surveyor to a tree. Then the halfbreed and his followers depart, immediately after which the girl appears on the scene and unties her lover. The girl then runs to the lumbermen and tells them that the accused murderer has run away - in the direction opposite from where he really went. However, the halfbreed sizes up the situation, turns around, and heads after the fleeing surveyor.

 

OVER THE PRECIPICE

The halfbreed catches up with the surveyor, there is a struggle, and the halfbreed falls over a rock ledge.

 

THE STRATAGEM: "ASK FOR A DRINK AT THE BROOK"

(Balance of film missing)

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Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.