Pierre of the Plains (1914)

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Edgar Selwyn | Dorothy Dalton | Sydney Seaward

Rest of cast:

Riley Hatch | Joseph Rider | Lawrence B. McGill | William Conklin | Manuel Klein (Musical Accompaniment) | Benjamin S. Kutler (Scenario) | Gilbert Parker (Novel) | Edgar Selwyn (Play)

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“Pierre of the Plains”

Five Parts — All-star feature corporation.

Reviewed by W. Stephen Bush.

More vivid than a novel and far more convincing and realistic than the stage is this motion picture portrayal of lights and shadows in the life of the Canadian Northwest.

Broadly speaking, the success of the filmed version of this play depended on two things mainly: On the man who was to impersonate the part of Pierre and upon the atmosphere. In both these essentials it seemed to me the play measured up to what we had a right to expect. Edgar Selwyn, the author of the play and often the portrayer of the leading character, has stood the test of the camera well.

Without the aid of words, upon which he had for years relied with natural confidence, he has conveyed to us all the shades which go to make up the complex character of Pierre.

Pierre has a bad reputation, he is a handsome fellow in whose veins the volatile blood of the French and the crafty daring of the Indian are mixed in puzzling proportions. The love of a woman brings the good in him to the surface and he becomes a man worthy of the affections of a good woman.

Mr. Selwyn knew how to make the character sympathetic and he endeared himself to the audience from the first. I must say that in view of the diversity in characters and in view of the complexity of the action a subtitle or two in the early stages of the plot might help. Once the spectator has grasped the relation of the parties he can have no trouble in following the course of action. I would rather miss a few of the later titles and put in a few at the beginning of things.

The working of the North West Royal Mounted Police has of course an intense human interest. Here the realism of the picture rises to admirable heights. It is easy to believe that the producing company “were quartered in the hearts of the North Woods for more than four weeks and that the thermometer hovered around forty below.” Of course this fact shows to some extent in the photography, but few will consider this a defect as it is the most positive proof of the fact that the pictures were indeed taken in regions very similar to those of the far Northwest.

The atmosphere was not all dependant on scenery alone. The very breath of the rugged life in the wilderness of snow is in the films. We experience the sensation particularly delightful to us children of an artificial civilization of being primitive men surrounded by primitive conditions; we are made to feel that in the shadows of these somber forests and upon the vast plains of snow and amid the savage children of an alien race the real worth of a man comes to the surface and here hearts are weighed in an unerring balance.

The acting of William Conklin (Durkin), of Joseph Rieder [Joseph Rider] (Vail), of William Riley Hatch (Peter Galbraith), and Sydney Seward (Sergeant Tom), was entirely satisfactory.

Dorothy Dalton as ‘“Jen” made an earnest effort to rise to her part, but it seemed to me as if it were not entirely congenial to her and at times she lacked both emphasis and power of characterization. It was no easy part, but it had great possibilities.

While both adaptation and direction bore marks of high quality, it must be pointed out that the drugging of Sergeant Tom was not conveyed in a plain manner, Indeed there was doubt in the audience as to whether the drugging had or had not been done. As the incident of the drugging is part of the plot and its subsequent development, it should stand out with the clearness of letters on a monument instead of which it seems buried in agate, decipherable but to few.

The great strength of Pierre of the Plains lies in its finish. It is wrought out in the films with rare art, beauty and power. Another point of merit is the element of suspense which holds us from the moment we understand the cast and the plot to the very last inch of the film. It is a play which has not even a mite of lost motion in its five thousand feet and which leaves a deep but most pleasing memory in every one lucky enough to see it.

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Scene from Pierre of the Plains (All Star).

Collection: Moving Picture World, May 1914

see also

• Heart of the Wilds (1918)
• Over the Border (1922)
• Pierre of the Plains (1942)