A Tale of the Wilderness
(1912) United States of America
B&W : Two reels
Directed by D.W. Griffith
Cast: Dorothy Bernard [the young woman], Charles Hill Mailes [the outlaw], Edwin August [the outlaw’s younger brother], William J. Butler [the pioneer leader], Dark Cloud [the Indian chief], Edna Foster, Muriel Ostriche [an extra, in the fort], Charles West
Biograph Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / From a novel by James Fenimore Cooper. Cinematography by G.W. Bitzer. / Released 8 January 1912. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Location photography shot in Coytesville, New Jersey. Ostriche’s film debut. The film was rereleased in the USA by The General Film Company, Incorporated, in 1916.
Drama: Western.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? In the wilds of the Kentucky hills two brothers, the elder an outlaw, view from a distance the approach of a party of settlers moving forward to a new home in the vast wildness. The younger brother is overwhelmed by the sight of the pioneers, and, unknown to his elder brother, joins their party. The settlers build a stockade home and the outlook is most rosy, until the outlaw brother meets a girl from the stockade at the spring, he, of course, not knowing his brother is among the party. He forces his attentions upon her, which she repulses, rushing back to the stockade for help. The outlaw’s influence with the neighboring Indians arouses them in his plan for vengeance. They attack the stockade, and when the settlers’ chance seems hopeless they dig a tunnel from the back of the stockade to the hillside. Most of them have effected an escape, but among the few captured is the younger brother, so the outlaw regrets his action and uses again his influence with the Indians, but with a different effect.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: USA: New Jersey: Coytesville
Listing updated: 7 October 2023.
References: Barry-Griffith p. 43; Bowers-Ostriche p. 223; Spehr-American p. 3 : Website-IMDb.
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