BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY (director: David M. Hartford; screenwriters: James Oliver Curwood's short story "Wapi the Walrus"/Nell Shipman; cinematographer: Joseph Walker; editor: Cyril Gardner; cast: Wheeler Oakman (Peter Burke), Wellington Playter (Rydal), Charles Arling (Blake), Ralph Laidlaw (Mr. LeBeau, Dolores's father), Nell Shipman (Dolores LeBeau); Runtime: 90; Milestone; 1919-silent/Canada)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A captivating melodrama, which was recently restored by Canadian archivists. It features a tale laced with severe Arctic weather conditions, a ferocious dog, a heartless villain and his unsympathetic compatriots, and an innocent couple who must defend themselves against all odds.
This silent film was made in 1919, after the film's Canadian born star, Nell Shipman, made a film in 1916, which was adapted from a novel by James Oliver Curwood. Here, the production team of Nell, her husband Ernest, and the writer Curwood, decide to back their own film. It was filmed in Alberta, Canada, under severe conditions, which caused the leading male star, Australian actor Ronald Byram, to come down with pneumonia and die. He was replaced in the film by Wheeler Oakman, who doesn't have much of a part.
Living in an idyllic forest setting with her father (Laidlaw), Dolores LeBeau (Shipman) meets an intellectual surveyor from the government, Peter Burke (Oakman), and falls in love with him. When he goes off surveying, a brutal criminal, Rydal (Playter), wanted by the Mounted Police, kills his arresting policeman, steals his uniform and tries to flee the country. But he's sidetracked when he sees the beautiful Dolores swimming nude in the Kern River; she actually wore a pink leotard. He then tries to rape her, as his partner tries to ward off her father. But when the father kills him, Rydal arrests his father and forcefully takes him in handcuffs. As Dolores follows, she sees him throw her father off a cliff into a water falls. It is too late for Dolores to rescue him and he dies.
Back in the city for the past year, Peter and Dolores are married and living a conventional life. But Dolores is a nature girl and yearns to be back in God's country to be among the bears, porcupines, and multitude of animals. Securing passage aboard a trading vessel heading for the Arctic Circle, "The Flying Moon," she will find out, when they are on their way, that their unseen captain is Rydal. She is scared to tell Peter this, because he threatens to kill him. So she decides to fend for herself against his advances. But he lays a trap for them and drops a sail on Peter, causing him to be bed-ridden and in need of medical treatment or he will die.
When they land at a trading post it's one run by Rydal's accomplice, a wormy trader named Blake (Charles Arling). He offers her no hope and tells her the nearest doctor is at Fort Confidence, miles away across the snowy wilderness of the Barrens where the temperature dips to 60 below zero. Blake also has a Great Dane, called Wapi, whom he calls a devil and constantly whips. When Dolores sees this, she offers the dog her gentle, loving touch, and the dog runs away from Blake to stay with her.
When she demands a dog-sled team to take her and Peter to Fort Confidence, she overhears Blake secretly tell Rydal that he'll send two teams: "one with the wife and the other with the husband and his men will make sure that only the woman will return -- for you!" Dolores shoots Blake in the arm and escapes with her husband in a race to get to Fort Confidence before Rydal, who is in hot pursuit of them. They get unexpected help from Wapi, who saves the day and attacks Rydal's dog team.
The most interesting shot in the film was cameraman Joseph Walker's double exposures in a dream sequence, which he did by stopping and taking repeated shots of the animals involved in that scene. As for Nell Shipman, she was a real nature lover and devoted her life to the Great Outdoors. The story was a conventional hero against villain one, but the film had a certain splendor about it that elevated its melodramatics. Also, the wilderness scenes had a sparkle to them that gave additional breathe to the mundane story.
REVIEWED ON 6/29/2001 GRADE: C+
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
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