In 1887 popular author Bronson Howard premiered his new play, 'The Henrietta.' Some twenty-five years later, after the playwright's death, it was revived on Broadway in a revised version entitled 'The New Henrietta,' and this time around it starred popular leading man Douglas Fairbanks in the central role, that of a timid young man named Bertie, nicknamed "the lamb." When Doug made his first feature film two years later in 1915, an adaptation of the hit play was the logical choice for his screen debut; or at least, that's how the story is told in various books and articles on Fairbanks. One look at the surviving film tells a different tale.
It appears the first thing the filmmakers did when it came time to adapt this material was throw out Howard's plot, rename their timid protagonist Gerald, and keep the "lamb" nickname for the title. Otherwise it's a completely new scenario, freshly conceived for the motion picture medium. That said, the plot may seem more than a little familiar if you've seen some of Fairbanks' other comedies, the ones made in the 'teens before he turned to swashbuckling. Understandably, The Lamb is not as polished or as witty as the vehicles subsequently crafted for the star, but this is where it all started, that is, where the template for those comedies was created.
Our central figure Gerald is the son of a Wall Street financier—that's practically the only element kept from the play—a soft and pampered fellow who speaks in an affected, pseudo-British fashion. He is courting Mary, a respectable young lady whose parents approve of the match largely because of Gerald's inherited wealth. But a complication arises when a virile young man from Arizona named Bill appears on the scene. Bill (amusingly called "the cactus fed giant" in title cards) is handsome and macho. Mary is smitten with him. And one day at the beach, when a drowning swimmer calls out for help, it's Bill who bravely rescues her while Gerald looks on passively. Mary denounces her fiancée as a coward, and he's ashamed.
While Mary and several members of her social set visit Bill's Arizona ranch, located near the border with Mexico, Gerald tries to improve himself with lessons in boxing and Jiu-Jitsu. He then departs to join his friends out west, but is waylaid en route by a pair of thieves, and stranded in the desert. Eventually he makes his way to Arizona, just as a rebellion breaks out across the border in Mexico. Both Gerald and Mary are abducted by rebels; Bill, meanwhile, reveals his true colors by fleeing rather than helping Mary. Now strengthened by his experiences, Gerald turns the tables on his captors and protects Mary long enough to allow for their rescue by U.S. Army troops.
That's the plot concocted for this film, and if you've seen any of Doug's other vehicles you'll instantly recognize some of the themes that would become familiar in follow-ups: the effete young weakling who must become tough, the impact of money on courtship and marriage, the superiority of strenuous living out West over stuffy society back East, etc. These elements would be reworked in various combinations, in such films as Double Trouble, Wild and Woolly, The Mollycoddle, etc. Next to those more polished efforts The Lamb is comparatively rough sledding. The tempo is slow in the opening scenes, and the title cards are awkwardly worded throughout. (Anita Loos & John Emerson would write witty text for the subsequent Fairbanks comedies; I gather Miss Loos worked on the titles for this film, but if that's correct she hadn't yet found the right tone to suit Doug's style.) This film also has the unhappy distinction of offering the star's all-time worst performance, in the scene where Gerald laments his cowardice after Bill rescues the drowning woman. Doug grimaces, rakes his face with his hand, turns one way and then the other, flings his arms in the air and then falls face forward into the sand! It's way over the top, and looks like a parody of bad acting. No wonder that, in later productions, Doug was inclined to underplay scenes of high emotion.
In any case, while it doesn't hold up as well as his best features, The Lamb marked a highly significant career milestone for Douglas Fairbanks, and will therefore be of interest to anyone who enjoys his mature work. All the great stars had to begin somewhere. This is where Doug's screen career was launched, and considering how many early films are lost we can be grateful it survives at all.
