the son who saved her father
by Douglas Messerli
Jasper Ewing Brady (screenplay, based on his
novel), Wilfrid North (director) Hearts and the
Highway / 1915 | lost film
Wilfrid North’s lost film of 1915, Hearts
and the Highway was an historical drama produced by the Vitagraph Company
in 5 reels.
Against his will, the Earl of Clanranald (Charles Kent) has been called
to a meeting of conspirators against King James II of England (Donald Hall),
and is arrested as being a traitor and is condemned to death by James. The
warrant, being dispatched to Edinburgh, is carried by Sir Harry Richmond
(Darwin Karr), one of the King’s most trusted bodyguards.
In the process, she is wounded in her shoulder by a sword, but
nonetheless succeeds in securing the warrant and burning it.
Upon
hearing her story, Sir Harry promises he will do everything in his power to
gain the release of Lady Katherine’s father.
This is one of the many historical tales filmed by Vitagraph along with
works in several other genres as they paved the way and defined the film
industry for rest of the century.
The noted actor/director Ned Finley, who later committed suicide when
his career began to fail, played a character in this film named General
Feversham.
Clearly, the major interest in this film for LGBTQ individuals exists in
the fact that it represents yet another of the several cross-dressing tales for
both males and females of the early silent movies. And the film obviously bears
some relationship with John G. Blystone’s 1925 work, Dick Turpin, also
about highwaymen and their adventures which also contains incidents of female
cross-dressing.
Los Angeles, January 25, 2022
Reprinted in World Cinema Review (January
2022).
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