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A Yankee from the West
(1915) United States of America
B&W : Four reels
Directed by George Siegmann
Cast: Wallace Reid [Billy Milford, also known as ‘Hell-in-the-Mud’], Signe Auen (Seena Owen) [Gunhild, a Norwegian girl], Tom Wilson [Jim Dorsey, Milford’s pal], Josephine Crowell [Mrs. Stuvic, an Illinois matron], Chris Lynton [Professor Emerson], Bill Brown (William H. Brown) [Jan Hagnerg, Gunhild’s uncle], Al W. Filson [Whitney Mills], George Siegmann [Sheriff Dick], Fred Gamble [the railroad superintendent]
Majestic Motion Picture Company production; distributed by Mutual Film Corporation [Mutual Masterpicture]. / Scenario by Mary O’Connor, from the novel A Yankee from the West by Opie Read. Cinematography by B.C. Hayward (Duke Hayward). / Released 19 August 1915. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Billy Milford, Harvard graduate, goes west to seek his fortune. In Addertown he secures a position as stationmaster of the L. & R. Railroad, but is forced out because of his drinking habits. He accidentally meets Gunhild, an emigrant Norwegian girl, as she arrives in Addertown to take up her home with Jan Hagsberg, the town’s saloonkeeper. Seeking revenge on the railroad, Milford joins Jim Dorsey in a scheme to hold up the road’s paymaster on his way to pay the employees of the company’s mine. The holdup is carried out successfully and the loot hidden under the floor of Milford’s cabin. Dorsey later returns and steals it. Then he flees the town. Milford is accused of the theft, but a search of his cabin does not reveal the money and he is freed. Gunhild, confident of his innocence, pledges her love as Milford goes east to live down the past. Two years later, Gunhild, employed as companion by a wealthy woman, arrives to spend the summer at a farm house adjoining the one operated by Milford. They meet by accident and their love is renewed. Dorsey, the strong man of a traveling show, reaches the town and insists upon forcing his attentions on Gunhild. Milford and Dorsey engage in a fistic encounter during which the latter is badly worsted. He leaves town that night. Having saved a large sum of money, Milford, accompanied by Gunhild, goes to the superintendent of the railroad and confesses his share in the holdup. Then he hands him the amount of money he had stolen from the paymaster. The superintendent, struck by Milford’s honesty and the struggle he has made to make amends, gives the entire amount to Gunhild, now Milford’s wife, as a wedding present. The two happy young persons then leave for parts unknown to begin life all over. // Additional synopsis available in AFI-F1 n. F1.5149.
Survival status: The film is presumed lost.
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Crime: Blackmail, Robbery - Drunkeness - Revenge
Listing updated: 27 November 2023.
References: AFI-F1 n. F1.5149; Tarbox-Lost p. 248 : ClasIm-226 p. 42 : Website-ASFFDb; Website-IMDb.
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