Deed of Daring-Do

This was the first of three "home movies" included in the bonus features on the special edition DVD release of "The Missing" (2003). Each of the short films is western-themed, to tie-in with director Ron Howard's "first" western feature. They are certainly not the only home-movies Mr. Howard made, although currently presented as such. The year of production is given as 1969. At that time, Howard had finished "The Andy Griffith Show" a teenager and accepted stints on westerns like "Gunsmoke", while younger brother Clint Howard was the new TV kid in the family in the shorter-lived "Gentle Ben" co-starring their dad, Rance Howard.

"Deed of Daring-Do" is a silent short starring young brother Clint. He wanders onto a "western" studio backlot and imagines himself in a cowboy movie. The fantasy swings when Ronny's girlfriend Cheryl Alley appears, dressed in western attire. Cheryl gives Clint a comely wink, which invites an appearance from a dastardly rival, played by father Rance. After the inevitable shoot-out, it appears Clint has won the girl, or has he… This is a competent effort, with Ronny's access to resources obviously coming in handy. According to the young filmmaker, "Deed of Daring-Do" won the Howard brothers $100 in a Kodak-sponsored contest.

***** Deed of Daring-Do (1969) Ron Howard ~ Clint Howard, Rance Howard, Cheryl Alley

It is not clear whether Ron Howard had been told about a 1907 silent film, 'Terrible Ted', which had an almost identical premise. The reviewer for 'The Moving Picture World' in 1907 described it in some detail; it was, after all, a short 792-foot one-reeler. (probably about eight or nine minutes, depending on the projector). Seemingly, just the idea of a kid doing all this gunfighting and Indian killing-it was a pretty violent film, though bloodless-was automatically funny to the reviewer: "The situations are extremely funny, as you may imagine-a boy of twelve years the hero of such hair-raising episodes."

The ad from Biograph subtitled Terrible Ted as "A Youthful Victim of Dime Novel-itis emulating Roosevelt in the Wild and Woolly West".

I don't know how much input Howard got on this-after all, he didn't spell 'Derring-do' correctly.

It's a very short (less than three minutes!) and silent movie about a little boy that is in an old far-west town and dreams for a few moments that he's a cowboy himself. And that's all because of a beautiful lady…

It's a color film but because of the silence and the type of cinematography it made me remind the silent movies of the early 20's.

The setting/scenario is very simple (it even has an amateur touch, like all movie anyway…) but it has all the elements which characterize an old west town: the saloon, carts, dusty roads…

Well, there isn't too much to say about it because it has just three minutes!