The Toll Gate

For the first half of this film I thought I was going to be more impressed than I was with TUMBLEWEEDS, the only previous Hart western I'd seen. The early scenes, showing his gang planning their last holdup, Black Deering's (Hart's) reservations about going through with it, and his betrayal by his most trusted lieutenant, were brilliantly done; the isolation that Hart feels as he is more or less forced back into crime, his desire for revenge on Jordan, the traitor become upstanding citizen in town -- all well-directed and even moving. Unfortunately, when Deering briefly takes up with a widow out on the edge of the border a simplistic Christian moralizing tone sets in: one passage from the Bible seems to set him off on a course of repentance and honesty. It's not completely unforeseen, as there are hints that Deering isn't quite as bad as he's portrayed by his ex-comrade and the law, but still the self-sacrifice and stoic acceptance of his fate in the last couple of reels seem a bit forced and unrealistic to me.

I watched the Kino VHS, probably at least 10 years old, with a bonus of the Mack Sennett "His Bitter Pill" at the end. There are definitely some problems with the print it was struck from...the fire scenes are nearly invisible and there is a lot of ghosting and edge distortion in the second half of the film, but it's certainly watchable. Recommended for Hart fans and silent film buffs, but forgettable on the whole.

Although not his best (see "Hell's Hinges", "The Narrow Trail" or "Wagon Tracks"), this is a fine example of a William S. Hart Western. He plays his patented role of the good bad-man, whose regeneration is progressed by the love of a pure woman. Here, it seems more of a personal battle of conscience, and there's the revenge plot.

The plot of "The Toll Gate" is not as tight as in other Hart vehicles, and, this one is excessively melodramatic. There's also some mild racism; moral goodness is equated to being white (as in Caucasian). On the other hand, there's nighttime photography and some nice use of tinting. The wear of age aggrandizes the odd, striking look of some of these scenes, such as with the glowing, red tinted silhouettes, or the blue sky from color deterioration in the final reel. The print, however, is in bad shape during the dénouement.

Hart's face was very expressive, and nowhere is that more visible than here. The refinements in film-making by 1920 help that and reflect the superior gloss and look of films at this time. Still, Hart's Westerns seemed outdated by then--not as entertaining and well constructed as just a few years ago.

The idea that westerns were all sweetness and light until the 50s and 60s falls apart when you examine the work of William S. Hart in the 1910s and early 1920s. He aimed for a general realism in his films and often played antiheroes who weren't above thievery, murder, and even rape before they discovered redemption in the second or third act. Of course, these films are also old-fashioned in their sense of old-fashioned religiosity and (usually but not always) passive heroines, but their grittier nature does make them ripe for critical re-evaluation, at least in my opinion.

The Toll Gate (1920) is a fine film, an ideal entryway into Hart's oeuvre. While there's nothing earthshaking from a technical point of view, its morally conflicted protagonist, a bandit leader constantly struggling to abandon the vagabond's life only to be pulled back by economic necessity or the allure of vengeance upon the man who betrayed him to the law, makes the story fascinating. Hart can be wooden at times, but for the most part, he is a restrained but powerful actor. Equaling him is the leading lady Anna Q. Nilsson, who, though stuck in a rather passive role, puts a great deal of subtlety into her character.

Worthwhile viewing and deserves rediscovery.

William S. Hart was a huge star in the early days of cinema, and The Toll Gate was one of his self-produced, self-written starrers. He plays a bad guy with a heart of gold who stumbles across a widow and her young son as he is pursued by the sheriff's posse. Sure as shootin' he reforms! I would love to hear what 'Master Richard Headrick', who played the three year old child, has to say (if anything) about his role in this and a number of other 20s features. According to IMDB he's still alive--at least at the date of this writing!

Toll Gate, The (1920)

*** (out of 4)

Outlaw Black Deering (William S. Hart) wants to retire after his gang's latest robbery but they convince him to go after one more score. His partner ends up selling him out for the reward money and Deering swears vengeance no matter how long it takes. He manages to escape from the posse and ends up on a small farm where he saves the life of a young boy and becomes apart of his mother's life. Soon Deering wants to start life fresh with them but his past is close behind. If you've seen any of Hart's Westerns made before THE TOLL GATE then you're going to be thinking that this is a remake of about three dozen of them. In all seriousness, if you've seen one Hart picture then you basically get the same story one film to the next but it says a lot about the persona of Hart that he managed to make each film so fresh and exciting even when it offers up nothing new. At 70-minutes the film never gets boring as we're treated to some nice drama as well as a couple very good action scenes. The opening scenes of the men trying to rob the train were pretty exciting and the ending with Hart trying to track down the man who set him up also offers some nice tension. The majority of the film features the same old story of Hart being a very bad man who falls for a woman who then makes him want to change his ways. At least in this film his character goes through a transformation where the viewer can at least understand and see why he would want to change his ways. There are several cute scenes between the little boy and Hart that really make the film stand out. The boy never got to know his real father so he looks forward to having a new dad in his life and this here makes for some very good moments. Hart fits the role with ease as by this time he could do this type of role in his sleep. He's benefited from a very strong supporting cast including Anna Q. Nilsson as the mother and Richard Headrick as the kid. Tom Jordan does a very good job playing the snake who turns Hart in. The film also benefits from some authentic scenery that really helps build up an atmosphere of being in the Old West. While the story is something we've seen before, the film is a good example of how you can bring fresh life to an old tale and with Hart's performance you walk away satisfied.