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Arms and the Woman
Also known as [A Western Melodrama]
(1910) United States of America
B&W : One reel / 975 feet
Directed by [?] Bannister Merwin?
Cast: Mary Fuller [Mary Cushing], [?] Charles Ogle? [Hank Young]
Edison Manufacturing Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Scenario by [?] Bannister Merwin and/or Rex Beach?, from a story by Rex Beach. / © 30 November 1910 by [?] Thomas A. Edison or Edison Manufacturing Company? [J148450, J148451, J148452, J148453]. Released 30 November 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The film was previously anonymously identified as [A Western Melodrama] in the George Kleine film collection.
Drama: Western.
Synopsis: [The Moving Picture World, 17 December 1910, page ?] Mrs. Cushing, a widow, and her two children, a beautiful daughter and a son whose inclinations are wayward, are residing in the mountains of California, where Mrs. Cushing’s late husband had some mining claims. The story opens when Mrs. Cushing receives by registered mail a package containing some two thousand dollars in currency, being the total sum realized on the sale of her husband’s estate in Iowa. The son has just asked his mother for a loan of money. She at first refuses him, but finally gives gold pieces, and he leaves the home, informing his mother that he is about to invest the money in such a way as to increase its amount. Without telling her son anything about it, in fact hiding the circumstances from him, Mrs. Cushing dispatches her daughter with the money, which has just been received by registered mail, to deposit same where she can pay some assessments for work on the mining property. The girl starts with a satchel containing the currency and takes the stage at Dutch Flat. Meanwhile, her brother has gone with the gold given him to a gambling house, where he loses every cent of it. A suspicious character is interested in his losses and watches him keenly. At the critical moment, he calls him aside and is talking to him very earnestly when Hank Young, the big stage driver of Dutch Flat, steps up and informs young Cushing that he had better beware of the stranger, for he doesn’t like the cut of his jib. Cushing resents any interference, and Hank moves away rebuffed. We now watch the events which transpire in front of the post-office at Dutch Flat. The stage comes in with a load of passengers, who dismount, and among those who start out on the next lap of the journey is Miss Cushing, holding the bag with the money. There is some talk between the driver, Hank Young, and the postmaster about a messenger on the box, and the latter tells Hank that he will find the messenger at the next stop. The coach pulls out of Dutch Flat, and no sooner has it gone than we see young Cushing and the suspicious character trailing through the mountains over a shortcut to head off the stage. When the stage arrives at the way station where the messenger was supposed to mount the box, Hank is informed by the stableman that no one is there to go with him. He tries to induce some cow-punchers to ride on the coach but they refuse, saying they have business elsewhere. Miss Cushing, who is now the sole passenger in the stage, is somewhat afraid of being alone, and the driver invites her to ride with him on the seat. We now reach a corner of the road at a wooded spot in the mountains. Young Cushing and his friend are seen masking themselves and going to ambush in order to hold up the stage. This they do, and all seems to be going their way when Hank Young, the stage driver, recalls the fact that the little woman beside him has confided to him that there are two thousand dollars of her mother’s money in the bag at her seat. He suddenly rouses himself to action, and it will be necessary to see the film to realize the way in which he put the ‘bad man’ to flight and placed a quietus on the stage-robbing aspirations of young Cushing. The thrilling moment of the picture is when Miss Cushing discovers that one of the robbers is her brother. She tells this to Hank, and he relieves the tension of the situation in a most clever manner. Young Cushing has been badly wounded, and Hank rushes his horses back to Dutch Flat, where the sheriff attempts to arrest the man in the coach. Here Hank shows his quickness of wit by telling the sheriff that the wounded man was a passenger in the coach. For this he receives a look of tenderness and gratitude from Cushing’s sister. Hank in his rough way has saved the family honor, and the last scene of the picture shows him giving young Cushing the lecture of his life and its effect upon the boy. Hank leaves with the gratitude of mother and sister and a promise from the wayward son to live in the future a wiser and a better life.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 3 December 1910, page ?] A Western story of interest, with a family complication in a stagecoach hold-up that astonishes a sister and a brother, and afterward only the quick wit of the driver saves the young man from arrest. However, the film ends with everybody safe and the young man started on a better way of life, while the mother and daughter are supremely thankful for the friendliness of the driver. The scenery is interesting, and the acting is quite in harmony with the subject. // [Variety, 3 December 1910, page ?] Rex Beach’s story as photoplayed by the Edison company is disappointing. The wayward son heeds the words of a bad man, and in order to make up for his losses at the gambling table plans a robbery with the stranger. It is fairly well acted and fairly well photographed. // [The Nickelodeon, 15 December 1910, page ?] How real that old stagecoach seemed coming down the country road, how human the driver, and how natural the townspeople hanging around the post-office, swapping news with the driver and noting incidentally who should arrive and who depart! It all bore the stamp of reality and life. Another scene, strong in its convincing qualities, was that in the gambling house, the types were so good and the action so true. The plot has originality, the acting is capably handled, and the photography shows fine workmanship. We are learning to expect something different and out of the ordinary, some point of exceptional excellence in the Edison releases, and we usually find it.
Survival status: Prints exist in the Library of Congress film archive (George Kleine collection) [16mm duplicate reduction negative (FRA 4650), 16mm reference reduction positive (FLA 1911)].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 23 August 2023.
References: Website-AFI; Website-IMDb; Website-LoC.
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