Dastardly villainy is afoot in the west! A cad and bounder harasses the town school-marm and assaults a pair of Native American merchants before being run off by the hero but schemes of revenge are being, well, schemed.
Home Media Availability: Stream courtesy of EYE.
The Bead Trail
Movies were invented during the height of the wild west show craze. Members of Buffalo Bill’s troupe (including Annie Oakley) were among the first subjects captured on movies meant for public consumption shot in Edison’s tarpaper Black Maria studio. The Bison Film Company was founded in 1909 and made westerns, real red-blooded stuff, their stock in trade.
This desire for authenticity meant location shoots out west and, often, jobs for Indigenous actors. Married actors Lillian St. Cyr and James Young Johnson performed under the stage names of Red Wing (likely taken from a 1907 popular music hit) and James Young Deer and were in high demand, so a collaboration with Bison was almost inevitable. (Please note that Young Deer’s Indigenous ancestry has been disputed but Red Wing’s has not. Film historian Angela Aleiss’s research shows that Young Deer was listed as a Black man in U.S. census and Naval records.)
The Cowboy and the School-Marm opens with Jess Wilson, a schoolteacher of an integrated class out in rural Texas, rejecting the advances of Joe Blackburn. We know he is the villain because he wears a frock coat and fancy boots. Jess’s heart belongs to gallant cowboy Jim Brady. The pair canoodle, much to the anger of Blackburn, and all seems lovely. A pair of Indigenous merchants, Young Deer and Red Wing, arrive to sell some beadwork, Jess and Jim greet them warmly and buy some of their items.
(The actors playing the title characters and the villain are uncredited. Red Wing and Young Deer were not credited by name in this picture but these are the names of their characters published in the trade synopsis. The pair had been playing characters with these names for at least a year in motion pictures. Interestingly, a release announcement for The Cowboy and the School-Marm appears in a 1910 issue of The Billboard right below the infamous We Nail a Lie IMP ad that credited actress Florence Lawrence by name and opened up the floodgates for the star system but we can view the character/actor names for Red Wing and Young Deer as an early example in semi-crediting contributors before official industry policy made proper credits standard practice for lead actors.)
Blackburn’s villainy is not complete! He runs into the merchants at the local saloon and shoves Red Wing. Young Deer draws a knife to defend her but, well, it’s a gunfight and things look bad when Jim shows up, gets the drop on Blackburn and forces him to back off. Now Blackburn is really mad and ready for revenge. He and his henchmen kidnap Jess while she is out for a ride and force her into the wilderness at gunpoint.
Red Wing and Young Deer see what has happened. Red Wing pursues the kidnappers, dropping beads on the ground as a trail, while Young Deer runs to get Jim and mount a rescue. Much of the film is spent on the suspenseful chase: Will the good guys catch up in time? What will happen when Red Wing runs out of beads?
This is a one-reel film, so things zip along pretty quickly. Is it even a spoiler to say that the heroes save the day? One thing that did concern me was Red Wing’s welfare. You see, she died saving white characters in The Squaw Man and In the Days of the Thundering Herd, so when she dropped her last bead and collapsed from exhaustion, I was ready to throw something at the screen. However, she manages to stagger after the men and arrives in time to see Jim defeat Blackburn. Jim and Jess ride off for a somewhat awkward horseback clutch, while Red Wing and Young Deer take Blackburn away, presumably for some frontier justice.
The Cowboy and the School-Marm might come off as unexpected for viewers who expect all silent movies to have old school Cowboys and Indians storylines. (And many did, we just covered Indians and Cow-Boys last week.) While there is a definite paternalistic tone, the film portrays the Indigenous couple as resourceful, brave, resilient and honest, as opposed to John Wayne cannon fodder, and they even survive the film. So, not perfect but certainly preferable to, say, whatever the hell Wild and Woolly was. (That last part about surviving was not a given during the era, non-white characters were frequently expected to sacrifice themselves for the happiness of the white leads.)
The film was directed by Fred J. Balshofer, who would go on to bend gender in films like The Haunted Pajamas and An Adventuress. Here, his direction is pretty old-fashioned and of the “show their shoes, the audience paid to see the whole actor” variety. In general, it looks like a 1907 or 1908 production rather than one from 1910. However, the print preserved by the EYE Filmmuseum is hand-colored, so that covers over a multitude of directorial sins.
The acting is of the more emphatic school (relative to the period) but doesn’t descend into full arm-flailing. Red Wing is, per usual, the best player in the picture, generally going for subtle reactions with only her scenes of falling down exhausted heading into more melodramatic territory. The picture also makes use of real locations and buildings. 1910 was a transitional time when more realistic scenery was winning out over painted backgrounds.
Reviews and reception of individual films was not as heavily covered during this period but there was feedback from the Theatorium in New Castle, Indiana, which reported that its combination of motion pictures and vaudeville were continuing to “draw a splendid business” and which played The Cowboy and the School-Marm with a live singing-dancing team, a balladeer, and a comedian. So, should your time machine deposit you at that specific place and time, you know what to expect.
The Cowboy and the School-Marm is a rare example of a surviving Young Deer/Red Wing picture and it gives them a pretty nice ending. The direction is a bit stodgy but the color is welcome and the action just keeps moving. This is a fun little film that deserves more attention.
Where can I see it?
Stream for free courtesy of EYE.
☙❦❧
Like what you’re reading? Please consider sponsoring me on Patreon. All patrons will get early previews of upcoming features, exclusive polls and other goodies.
Disclosure: Some links included in this post may be affiliate links and I earn from qualifying purchases.
