Salomy Jane (film)

Salomy Jane

House Peters lifts Beatriz Michelena onto his horse
Directed by William Nigh
Lucius Henderson
Produced by Alexander E. Beyfuss
Written by Paul Armstrong (play & screenplay)
Bret Harte (original story)
Cinematography Arthur A. Cadwell
Arthur Powelson
Distributed by Alco Film Corporation
Release dates
  • November 2, 1914
Running time
approximately one hour (six reels)
Country United States
Language Silent
English intertitles

Salomy Jane is a 1914 American Western feature film based on Bret Harte's 1898 novella of the same name.[1] It is the only known surviving complete work of silent film era actress Beatriz Michelena and the California Motion Picture Corporation.

Plot

Rough-and-tumble Gold Rush-era California: a woman (Salomy Jane) is saved from a ruffian (Red Pete) by a heroic stranger (Jack Dart), the latter saved from a lynching when falsely accused of a crime.

Cast

Distinctions

Salomy Jane was the debut California Motion Picture Corporation[2] feature as well as screen appearance by stage actress and singer Beatriz Michelena. George E. Middleton saw in his Latina wife a competitor to Mary Pickford as a premier screen star, each production intended to be Michelena's vehicle to success. Despite being well received by the public it did not return a profit for the national distributor, Alco Film. The subsequent productions being commercial failures, did not preclude Michelena demanding star-treatment perquisites that proved to much for the studio. The duo left California Motion Picture forming Beatriz Michelena Features,[3] producing Just Squaw (1919) and The Flame of Hellgate (1920).[4][5] Middleton and Michelena divorced in the 1920s.[6]

Salomy Jane (1914), long cited as the debut appearance of Jack Holt seems to be in error as he had been taking bit parts during the preceding year.[7] It is the scene in which he rides a horse to the edge of a steep embankment then jumps off tumbling more than a hundred feet down into the Russian River. The stunt netted him a bit part as a saloon patron.

Restoration

All California Motion Picture Corporation and Beatrice Michelena Studio films were believed lost due to a 1931 studio fire in San Rafael, California caused by a child's firecracker prank that destroyed the vault in which the films were stored. However, a Salomy Jane (1914) print was found in Australia in 1996, and has been preserved by the Library of Congress. New 35mm prints began limited circulation in 2008.[8] The restoration was part of a DVD released (2011) by the National Film Preservation Foundation in the anthology Treasures 5: The West 1898–1938.

Remakes

Remade as Salomy Jane (1923) starring Jacqueline Logan by Famous Players-Lasky and released by Paramount Pictures.[9]

Remade in sound as Wild Girl (1932) by Fox Film Corporation.[10]

References

See also

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Salomy Jane (film).