The Return of Draw Egan
Encyclopedia
The Return of Draw Egan is a 1916
silent era
western
drama
motion picture
starring William S. Hart
, Louise Glaum
, Margery Wilson
, Robert McKim
, and J.P. Lockney
.
Directed
by William S. Hart and produced
by Thomas H. Ince
for Kay-Bee Pictures and the New York Motion Picture Company, the screenplay
was written by C. Gardner Sullivan
.
According to modern sources, the assistant director
was Cliff Smith and the art director was Robert Brunton.
One of the early five-reel feature length
silent movies, The Return of Draw Egan was exhibited on October 1, 1916, at the Realto Theater in New York City
. The western was re-released in 1924
. It is currently available on DVD.
is the American Wild West
. The notorious outlaw
leader "Draw" Egan (played by Hart) and his gang is chased by a posse of lawmen to his remote mountain cabin, where they are trapped. During a fierce shootout
, Egan opens a trapdoor
and they escape through a tunnel before the posse can overwhelm them.
With a bounty
on his head, Egan turns up in the dangerous frontier range
town of Yellow Dog. Presenting himself by the assumed name William Blake, he enters the saloon. The seductive dance-hall girl, Poppy (played by Glaum), uses her alluring wiles to entice and entertain him. He looks amused when he is challenged to fight by a rowdy barfly, then punches and finishes the man off with the one powerful blow. The townspeople are impressed. Believing Blake to be a strong and law-abiding man, they want him to be their new marshal. The reformist mayor, Mat Buckton (played by Lockney), hires him for the much avoided position to restore law and order and rid the town of the lawless gunmen who have nearly taken over.
Blake turns Yellow Dog into a model community, while hiding his criminal past, and plans to move on soon. But when he sees the mayor's daughter, Myrtle Buckton (played by Wilson), he decides to stay on as marshal of Yellow Dog. Beginning a romance with the God-fearing young woman, he proceeds to settle down and become a genuinely lawful and respected member of the town. Then Arizona Joe (played by McKim), a member of Egan's former gang, shows up in Yellow Dog to make trouble. He threatens to expose Egan's past if he tries to make him obey the law and not help him take over the town.
The marshal gives in for a while, but then decides that the welfare of the town is more important than his romance with Myrtle. When he goes after Arizona Joe, the outlaw keeps his word and tells the whole town about Draw Egan. During the final showdown, which is short and brutal, Egan shoots and kills Joe. He then surrenders himself for arrest, but the grateful townspeople refuse to hear of it and offer to keep him in office. He is also prepared to give up Myrtle, but she tells him that his past is unimportant and they begin making plans for their future together.
review
of Monday, October 2, 1916, "Hart Film A "Thriller" --- "The Return of 'Draw' Egan" a Good Picture of the Wild West," reads:
1916 in film
The year 1916 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 17 - release of A Daughter of the Gods, the first US production with a million dollar budget, with the first nude scene by a major star....
silent era
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
drama
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
motion picture
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
starring William S. Hart
William S. Hart
William Surrey Hart was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered for having "imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity."-Biography:...
, Louise Glaum
Louise Glaum
Louise Glaum was an American actress. Best known for her role as a femme fatale in silent era motion picture dramas, she was credited with giving one of the best characterizations of a vamp in her early career....
, Margery Wilson
Margery Wilson
Margery Wilson , was an American actress and silent movie director. She appeared in 51 films between 1914 and 1939.She was born in Gracey, Kentucky, USA and died in Arcadia, California.-Filmography:...
, Robert McKim
Robert McKim (actor)
Robert McKim was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 99 films between 1915 and 1927. He is best remembered for playing the arch villain opposite Douglas Fairbanks's Zorro in The Mark of Zorro in 1920. McKim also starred with Lon Chaney in the 1923 silent version of All The Brothers...
, and J.P. Lockney
J. P. Lockney
J. P. Lockney was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 105 films between 1915 and 1937.He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Selected filmography:* The Guilty Man * Fuss and Feathers...
.
Directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by William S. Hart and produced
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
by Thomas H. Ince
Thomas H. Ince
Thomas Harper Ince was an American silent film actor, director, screenwriter and producer of more than 100 films and pioneering studio mogul. Known as the "Father of the Western", he invented many mechanisms of professional movie production, introducing early Hollywood to the "assembly line"...
for Kay-Bee Pictures and the New York Motion Picture Company, the screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was written by C. Gardner Sullivan
C. Gardner Sullivan
C. Gardner Sullivan was an American screenwriter and motion picture producer. He was a prolific writer with more than 350 films among his credits. In 1924, the magazine Story World selected him on a list of the ten individuals who had contributed the most to the advancement of the motion picture...
.
According to modern sources, the assistant director
Assistant director
The role of an Assistant director include tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, maintaining order on the set. They also have to take care of health and safety of the crew...
was Cliff Smith and the art director was Robert Brunton.
One of the early five-reel feature length
Feature length
Feature length is motion picture terminology referring to the length of a feature film. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a feature length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes to be eligible for an Academy Award.The term may also...
silent movies, The Return of Draw Egan was exhibited on October 1, 1916, at the Realto Theater in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The western was re-released in 1924
1924 in film
-Events:* Entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to create Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
. It is currently available on DVD.
Synopsis
The settingSetting (fiction)
In fiction, setting includes the time, location, and everything in which a story takes place, and initiates the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may...
is the American Wild West
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
. The notorious outlaw
Outlaw
In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
leader "Draw" Egan (played by Hart) and his gang is chased by a posse of lawmen to his remote mountain cabin, where they are trapped. During a fierce shootout
Shootout
A shootout is a gun battle between armed groups. A shootout often, but not necessarily, pits law enforcement against criminal elements; it could also involve two groups outside of law enforcement, such as rival gangs. A shootout in a military context A shootout is a gun battle between armed groups....
, Egan opens a trapdoor
Trapdoor
A trapdoor is a door set into a floor or ceiling .Originally, trapdoors were sack traps in mills, and allowed the sacks to pass up through the mill while naturally falling back to a closed position....
and they escape through a tunnel before the posse can overwhelm them.
With a bounty
Bounty (reward)
A bounty is a payment or reward often offered by a group as an incentive for the accomplishment of a task by someone usually not associated with the group. Bounties are most commonly issued for the capture or retrieval of a person or object. They are typically in the form of money...
on his head, Egan turns up in the dangerous frontier range
Rangeland
Rangelands are vast natural landscapes in the form of grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savannas, chaparrals, steppes, and tundras...
town of Yellow Dog. Presenting himself by the assumed name William Blake, he enters the saloon. The seductive dance-hall girl, Poppy (played by Glaum), uses her alluring wiles to entice and entertain him. He looks amused when he is challenged to fight by a rowdy barfly, then punches and finishes the man off with the one powerful blow. The townspeople are impressed. Believing Blake to be a strong and law-abiding man, they want him to be their new marshal. The reformist mayor, Mat Buckton (played by Lockney), hires him for the much avoided position to restore law and order and rid the town of the lawless gunmen who have nearly taken over.
Blake turns Yellow Dog into a model community, while hiding his criminal past, and plans to move on soon. But when he sees the mayor's daughter, Myrtle Buckton (played by Wilson), he decides to stay on as marshal of Yellow Dog. Beginning a romance with the God-fearing young woman, he proceeds to settle down and become a genuinely lawful and respected member of the town. Then Arizona Joe (played by McKim), a member of Egan's former gang, shows up in Yellow Dog to make trouble. He threatens to expose Egan's past if he tries to make him obey the law and not help him take over the town.
The marshal gives in for a while, but then decides that the welfare of the town is more important than his romance with Myrtle. When he goes after Arizona Joe, the outlaw keeps his word and tells the whole town about Draw Egan. During the final showdown, which is short and brutal, Egan shoots and kills Joe. He then surrenders himself for arrest, but the grateful townspeople refuse to hear of it and offer to keep him in office. He is also prepared to give up Myrtle, but she tells him that his past is unimportant and they begin making plans for their future together.
Cast in credited order
- William S. HartWilliam S. HartWilliam Surrey Hart was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered for having "imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity."-Biography:...
as "Draw" Egan / William Blake - Louise GlaumLouise GlaumLouise Glaum was an American actress. Best known for her role as a femme fatale in silent era motion picture dramas, she was credited with giving one of the best characterizations of a vamp in her early career....
as Poppy - Margery WilsonMargery WilsonMargery Wilson , was an American actress and silent movie director. She appeared in 51 films between 1914 and 1939.She was born in Gracey, Kentucky, USA and died in Arcadia, California.-Filmography:...
as Myrtle Buckton - Robert McKimRobert McKim (actor)Robert McKim was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 99 films between 1915 and 1927. He is best remembered for playing the arch villain opposite Douglas Fairbanks's Zorro in The Mark of Zorro in 1920. McKim also starred with Lon Chaney in the 1923 silent version of All The Brothers...
as Arizona Joe - J.P. LockneyJ. P. LockneyJ. P. Lockney was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 105 films between 1915 and 1937.He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Selected filmography:* The Guilty Man * Fuss and Feathers...
as Mat Buckton
Uncredited cast listed alphabetically
- Dorothy Benham
- Hector Dion as William Cleves
- J.H. Gilmour
- Aggie HerringAggie HerringAggie Herring was an American actress. She appeared in 119 films between 1915 and 1939.She was born in San Francisco, California and died in Santa Monica, California.-Selected filmography:* Daredevil Jack...
as townswoman - Florence La BadieFlorence La BadieFlorence La Badie was an American actress in the early days of the silent film era. Though little known today, she was a major star between 1911 and 1917, her career was at its height and climbing when she died unexpectedly due to injuries sustained during an automobile accident.-Early life:While...
as Margery Carew - George Marlo as James Gray
- Samuel N. Niblack
- Robert Vaughn
Reviews
A New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
review
Film criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
of Monday, October 2, 1916, "Hart Film A "Thriller" --- "The Return of 'Draw' Egan" a Good Picture of the Wild West," reads:
"The Return of 'Draw' Egan," the new feature film exhibited yesterday at the Rialto, is an unusually good western picture of the William S. Hart school. It is better than most films of its type because it tells a reasonable story, or at least it tells its story convincingly, which amounts to the same thing.
Hart does this Bret HarteBret HarteFrancis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.- Life and career :...
sort of thing so well that he must begin to fear he will spend the rest of his life in chaps and a saddle. He can draw a gun with the best road agents of fiction and can roll a cigarette with one hand and strike a match on his nails with the nonchalance of Will RogersWill RogersWilliam "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
, so it is no wonder his director keeps him standing for closeupsClose-upIn filmmaking, television production, still photography and the comic strip medium a close-up tightly frames a person or an object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium shots and long shots . Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene...
beside the counter of the Yellow Dog Saloon.
"The Return of 'Draw' Egan" is the story of the regeneration of a bad man through love. Egan, the mysterious masked bandit of the hills, has long been the terror of his district, but finally in the course of human events he is driven to cover and it is only by grace of an underground passage from his mountain cabin that he breaks through the iron ring of the posse.
In a distant range town his cool nerve and virtuosity with a revolver cause him to be made Marshal by the law-abiding element. He cleans up the town and has just begun to hope that his past is buried when one of his former henchmen arrives and holds the revealment of Egan's identity over his head. The accusation finally comes, and the settling of the score after the primal manner of plainsmen, is one of the most exciting sections of a film that almost equals the FairbanksDouglas FairbanksDouglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
shows for the number and intensity of its fights. Of course, any audience would be terribly disappointed if Egan was not absolved and accepted by the girl, so the ending is happy."
External links
- The Return of Draw Egan at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films