White Oak (Silent)

Scoundrel Mark Granger tries to force himself on innocent young Rose Miller after cornering her on a riverboat. The horrified girl hurls herself overboard to save her honor. Although she is rescued from drowning, she emerges from the Mississippi deathly ill. Her brother Oak rushes to Rose's side but the girl is slowly dying. He engages a nurse to care for her and they join a wagon train to seek their fortunes in the West. But Oak Miller is a force to be reckoned with and vows that the man that ruined his sister will pay with his life.

William S. Hart began as a highly acclaimed Shakespearean actor on Broadway who entertained no aspiration for movie acting prior to age 49. A major western buff, he purchased Billy The Kid's pistols and boasted friendships with both Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. Partnering with producer Thomas Ince in 1915, Hart went on to star in and direct dozens of memorable westerns. The superior style and quality of these films is evident in the beautifully designed intercards, the magnificent location shots and the realistic costumes and sets. In White Oak, cinematographer Joe August turns in a beautifully photographed Indian attack on a wagon train in a wilderness.

A gambler (William S. Hart) seeks revenge on the villain (Alexander Gaden) who ravished his sister (Helen Holly). The brute also attempts to, as an inter title puts it, "possess" the gambler's sweetheart (Vola Vale) and, still not satisfied, lecherously pursues the daughter of his partner-in-crime, an Indian chief (Standing Bear). Hart wrote the story himself, and the film reflects his, by 1921, slightly anachronistically stern view of the West. The great star was no longer the box-office draw of yore, his popularity usurped by more flamboyant, if not downright tongue-in-cheek, cowboys such as Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson. Hart released three more films in 1921 but none the following year and only one in 1923. He wound up his career in 1925, but on a high note: TUMBLEWEEDS, a fascinating epic of the Oklahoma land rush.