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The Dragon’s Claw
(1915) United States of America
B&W : Three reels
Directed by Stanner E.V. Taylor
Cast: Walter Hampden, Marion Leonard, Richard ‘Skeets’ Gallagher
The Balboa Amusement Producing Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated [Knickerbocker Star Features]. / Scenario by Stanner E.V. Taylor. / Released [?] 29 September or 13 October? 1915. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Leonard’s final film.
Drama: Western.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? A little girl and her father are among the settlers in a small western town. The father is very friendly with the neighboring Indian tribe and is presented with a quaint piece of metal representing a dragon’s claw, the tribe’s good luck omen. Some time later, while traveling with his daughter, he is held up by a band of bandits and is shot by a man of their number who takes from him this dragon’s claw. The man is left to die on the desert. Years pass. The little girl has grown into a beautiful young lady. She lives in a large eastern city and is prominent in the best society. She still remembers the days in the west, the episode of the dragon’s claw and the killing of her father. She marries. Her husband is a prominent figure in the business world. Their love is very real and their life most happy. He becomes interested in a mine in the west which is found to yield the richest gold. He decides to go out west to see this mine and his wife expresses a desire to go along with him. The mine is christened “The Dragon’s Claw,” because of an Indian charm the man owns. His wife does not connect the name with the killing of her father. While out on a western desert, he shows the dragon’s claw to his wife. She then recognizes it as the kind her father possessed when he was killed. She has understood it to be the only one of its kind. So it is her husband who killed her father. What shall she do? She is undecided. She cannot bring herself to kill him in cold blood. Still, she must avenge her father’s death. So, taking all with her, she leaves him alone on the desert to die. Some bandits have been prowling in the neighborhood. They see the woman and decide to make away with her. They start to carry out their plans. The husband sees them, realizes their purpose and hurries after his wife. He arrives while she is holding the bandits at bay, and while saving her, he is himself killed. Help has arrived and to them the woman leaves the dead body, continuing on her way alone. She will have nothing to do with the man who killed her father. About an hour later she meets an Indian trader. In his hand he has a dragon’s claw which he wants to sell to her, like the one her husband and father had. Can it be that there are two such curios in existence, she asks? The Indian draws out a handful. They are common as dirt in that section of the country. The woman realizes her tragic mistake, rushes back to the dead body of her husband and falls lifeless over it.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 30 October 2022.
References: Tarbox-Lost p. 195 : Website-IMDb.
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