A Romance of the Redwoods

A ROMANCE OF THE REDWOODS is an odd little film. This 1917 entry has Mary Pickford as an eastern girl who heads west to be with her uncle, her last surviving relative. In separate action we are introduced to Black Brown (Elliott Dexter) a desperado who comes upon the body of a dead man and changes clothes with him, assuming his identity. When a posse comes upon the dead man, they assume it's Black Brown.

In the mining town of Strawberry Flats, Dexter continues his charade as the dead man and everything goes well until Pickford arrives in town and takes up residence in his cabin. Of course he's still robbing stagecoaches. Pickford begins cleaning up the filthy cabin and comes upon a bandana with odd holes cut out of it. She holds it up to her faces and peers out through the holes.

She realizes Dexter is not Uncle John but he threatens to tell the world she's his gal if she breathes a word about his identity. Of course they fall in love.

The twist ending is quite good. Not a major vehicle for Mary Pickford, the film really stars Elliott Dexter, a favorite leading man of director Cecil B. DeMille. The location shooting is a plus. Look for Tully Marshall, Charles Ogle, Walter Long.

Jenny left home for meeting her uncle. She arrived at the town where she and her uncle were determined to see each other. But there was not her uncle, the strange man who was a burglar appeared in front of her. His name is Black Brown. Black Brown let her know that her uncle was killed by arrows of apaches. Then Brown pretended to become her uncle at the moment, Jenny told other people that he was her uncle. His mind got weaker(I am unsure), owing to her innocent personality. He swore to not do something bad to Jenny. Brown, however, broke a vow, stole gold, and then purchased the doll to give Jenny a present. Sheriff and other people came, were determined to strangle him. Brown confessed the truth that he was not Jenny's uncle, requested her to save him. Jenny requested Sheriff or one man. After all, Brown was not strangled. Then Jenny and Brown left the town together.

Black Brown was quite hot in the film. It was cute that his heart became weaker in front of Jenny. Jenny was boyish, she targeted someone(She did not know the man was Black Brown at that time) with the gun. Eliott Dexter looked a lot younger than his age, forty-six or seven in the film.

Romance of the Redwoods is an early western feature film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille if stars Mary Pickford as Jenny Lawrence. And Elliott Dexter as 'Black' Brown. The story line goes as Jenny is sent west to live with her uncle after the death of her father. In the meantime her uncle has been killed by Indians and Black Brown as assumed his identity They both make it to Strawberry Flats a gold rush town. Jenny makes it to Blacks cabin and knows he is not her uncle well they fall in love and the law catches up to Black the rest is to be watched.

It is good to see Pickford play a real woman in a film and she really makes this movie worth watching. Also Dexter does a good job of acting as does the rest of the ensemble. The real downfall of the film is the implausibility of the story line along with an unbelievable ending. It is nice to see Big Basin State Park used for the exterior shots this is one of the loveliest places in all of California, Grade C

Now i enter the most difficult time in my backward cinema trip because my library has no more DVD for 1917 and before (except Charlot but the clown never makes me laugh!)... So it takes time to pick and find the movie but when i read this title and the story, i was at once motivated: I love forest and those big Redwoods are an amazing view: when i visited Frisco, i touched them over the bay and it was a fantastic moment! So i watched this movie to check if they were there as it's about gold rush California and indeed, the locations of that Cavaleras county seems real and so the scenes are with the cabin are incredible!

But as soon as the movie begins, it's also clear that the movie has much more to offer: simply, you feel that the movie has a solid, fun story, that the director knows how to tell it even without sound and for sure that the cast is excellent to play it! It's not a surprise to see that C B Demille has become a Hollywood legend as Mary Pickford whom i didn't recognize from Mark of Zorro 3 years later...

This movie is fun because we have all the cliches of the Old West already put in 1917 and for those poor empty and blind weepers who laments that women have always been portrayed as feeble, well, they should watch it and they would understand that they lack practice...

This fiery woman who can bring peace to this crude men's world is totally modern and instead of doing stupid reboots, sequels, CGI effects should be used to color this old black and white movie classic!

I didn't know what to make of this Mary Pickford film. I've seen quite a few of Mary's films by now, and this one was just strange. There was no chemistry between Mary's character and the thief she falls in love with, no foundation for that to happen at all. The story was implausible; why would the girl stick around after she found out the uncle was dead? She should have turned right on home again. Instead she compromises her own honor by trying to save the villain, and then she tricks the law in order to escape with her "love". Poor script, to say the least. Not on par with Mary's other films.