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Under Western Skies
(1910) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by [?] Gilbert M. Anderson and/or Reginald Barker?
Cast: Gilbert M. Anderson [a cowboy], Clara Williams [Kate Allison], Fred Church [a cowboy], Joseph Smith [a cowboy and the minister], Frank Hall (Franklyn Hall) [an old sweetheart], [?] John B. O’Brien? [the bartender], [?] Fred Ilenstine? [a marriage witness], [?] William Russell? [a marriage witness], [?] Chick Morrison?
Essanay Film Manufacturing Company production; distributed by Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. / Produced by Gilbert M. Anderson. Scenario by Gilbert M. Anderson. Cinematography by Jess Robbins. / Released 6 August 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama: Western.
Synopsis: [The Moving Picture World, 6 August 1910, page ?] Kate Allison, an exceptionally beautiful Western girl, is engaged to marry a young Easterner, a long-time family friend. In the first scene, the fiancé is bidding his sweetheart good-bye, and he is to be accompanied to the station by his prospective father-in-law. The girl is left alone with a warning that should she be molested by any of the crowd of drunken cowpunchers who would be returning from a dance at a neighboring ranch, not to hesitate to shoot. We are next shown three young punchers, all intoxicated, riding up to the door of the cottage. All dismount, and one, peering into the window, sees the girl alone. Reelingly, they enter to find the girl covering them with a Winchester, but the foremost of the gang strides forward and, before she can pull the trigger, jerks the gun from her hands. The punchers resolve to play a game of poker to see who will win the young lady. A greasy pack is brought forth and the game starts. Kate sees the desperateness of the situation and resolves to employ desperate means in protecting herself. A card falls on the floor from the hand of the puncher nearest her. Seizing it, she scribbles a line across the face and slips it into the puncher’s hands. It reads: ‘I will be yours in marriage if you will protect me from the others.’ The puncher reads the note as he covertly watches the others. Then, as he looks at Kate, a new sensation sweeps over his soul and he nods his head. He starts an altercation, accusing one of the others of cheating, which ends in all the punchers leaving the room to settle the dispute at twenty paces in the old-fashioned and gentlemanly way. When the puncher returns to the girl alone, he tells her she must now make good her promise and swears faithfully to make himself worthy of her. She nods her head, but it is a look of hatred and scorn which she fastens on him as they leave. They are married and go to the cowpuncher’s quarters. He apologizes for his poverty but repeats his promise to make her happy if she will give him a chance. Yet she steadfastly refuses to allow him to make love to her. A few months drag by, and her former fiancé traces her to her new home. He demands an explanation and asks if she loves her husband. She answers angrily that she does not, and then eagerly accepts his invitation to return East with him. Without horses or other conveyances, it is almost impossible for them to cross the strip of desert which separates them from her father’s home, but they resolve to attempt the journey. On the way, they become lost, and the last drop of the canteen, which her fiancé had selfishly drained himself, finds them in desperate straits, facing the cruelest of all deaths. Kate stumbles and begs for his assistance, but the panic-stricken young fellow refuses. They stumble upon the bones of a horse, and the shock of this sight causes the girl to totter to the ground in a faint. The young fellow offers no assistance, but staggers desperately on. An hour later, dazed and blindly tottering, he falls into the arms of a young prospector, who, after giving the young man restoratives, learns of the woman lost on the trail. The young prospector hurries back on the path indicated by the young fellow and, an hour later, staggers back into camp with the young girl in his arms. She has regained her senses and recognizes in the prospector her deserted husband. The cowardly young fiancé then asks Kate to go on with him, but she refuses and clings to her husband, whom she has vowed to love and obey forever after.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 20 August 1910, page ?] ‘The Great Divide’ attracted a great deal of attention as a drama, and acrimonious discussions were frequent concerning it. Here is a picture much like the drama in its beginnings. The girl gives herself to one of the men to escape a worse fate, though she separates from another lover to do it. Later she discovers in a dramatic way that her lover was a poltroon and turns to her husband for protection. The film is better than the drama. The impression conveyed when the girl turns to her husband is inspiring, and the picture works out to the end in a satisfactory way. It seems right that she should turn to her husband, and the picture is made convincing when that is done. The accessories like the desert and the environments of Western life are all graphically portrayed and help make the story seem more plausible. Unquestionably, this firm has produced one of the best pictures put out in a long time. It will appeal to critical audiences and be of material assistance in enhancing the reputation of motion pictures.
Survival status: Print exists in the Library of Congress film archive [35mm positive].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 29 June 2023.
References: Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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