Post by Terry Harbin on Dec 20, 2010 21:32:50 GMT -5
THE GREAT WHITE TRAIL
(1917 - Wharton Inc.)
DIR: Leopold D. Wharton;
SCRIPT: Gardner Hunting
& Leopold Wharton;
PHOTO: Ray June & Levi Bacon
CAST: Doris Kenyon (Prudence Carrington Ware/
Prudence Martling),
Paul Gordon (George Ware),
Thomas Holding (Rev. Arthur Dean),
F.W. Stewart (The "Vulture" of the trail),
Edgar L. Davenport (Albert Carrington),
Hans Robert (Charles Carrington, wayward
brother of Prudence),
Louise Hotelling (Marie)
A man believing his wife is unfaithful casts her and
their child out. The child is abandoned, the husband
and wife lose their memories, there is robbery, violence
and death before all is set right in the Klond**e goldfields.
This may be the strangest film at this year's show!
The Wharton brothers are probably best remembered
for their serial productions which may explain the
preponderance of plot points displayed in this film.
Leopold Wharton had gone to Ithaca New York in
1913 to film a football picture for Essanay. He saw
possibilities in the picturesque hills, cliffs, valleys and
waterfalls of the Finger Lakes and he, in conjunction
with his actor brother Theodore, started Wharton
Inc in 1914 and produced The Perils Of Pauline,
The Exploits Of Elaine, The New Exploits Of Elaine,
and The Romance of Elaine all with Pearl White as
well as other titles with Lionel and Ethel Barrymore,
Warner Oland, and Irene Castle.
The company ceased producing motion pictures in 1919.
The brothers never worked together again.
The scenes of the prospectors beginning their journey
on the “Great White Trail” were very effectively filmed
in the gorges and valleys above Cayuga Lake. 142
men from the Ithaca area and students from Cornell
were used in the scene at the Chilkoot Pass according
to the Ithaca Daily News in March 1917. Additional
photography was done on location in the Adirondacks
at Alaska City neat Port Henry New York. It was a
large outdoor set built by a colorful character named
“Caribou Bill” in 1915 to be used by Eastern film
companies filming Alaskan scenes and the Wharton's
went there when snow came late to the Ithaca
area and delayed shooting in that location.
Philip Carli played the film in Ithaca and had this to
say, “I played The Great White Trail last night in
Ithaca to 1600 people! The film's rather wild and
bewildering -- Leopold Wharton wrote an extremely
complicated serial-like scenario, he and brother
Theodore directed it and initially released it at 8 reels,
and then they cut it to 5 due to distribution difficulties
(they were handling it themselves). The result is
ultimate and excessive melodramatic compression,
like packing an atomic bomb in a small cardboard
suitcase: characters pop in and out sequentially,
disgrace and/or violent death happens every
five minutes or so, a baby is mislaid in a fit of
insanity, there are beatings (one of which causes
amnesia and another cures it), shootings, attempted
white slavery, several chases, and a fire, plus
THE GREAT WHITE TRAIL (the Chilkoot Pass
simulated by Taughannock Falls just outside Ithaca).
All this in seventy minutes.
A couple drove up from New Jersey to see it, can
you imagine!! I think it'll do all right in Massillon
this fall.”
With that in mind and at the suggestion of D.J.
Turner I'm including his brief synopsis so you'll
be prepared for every twist and turn: “It's very
busy/action packed with some humour and
coincidences galore. It looks like Back To God's
Country and The Grub-Stake combined.
Against her father's wishes, Prudence Carrington
marries George Ware rather than the Reverend
Arthur Dean. When George sees her with
Charles he does not realize it is her brother and
turns her out with their child Marie, believing her
to be unfaithful. Half demented, Prudence hides
the baby in a basket in the woods where it is
found by the Reverend Dean's dog.
Dean brings up the child and Prudence, suffering
memory loss, goes to the Klond**e as a nurse.
Dean also travels to the Klond**e to minister to
the gold miners. George, having learned of his
wife's innocence, travels to the Klond**e to find
her but he too loses his memory when he is hit
on the head by a lawless character called the
Vulture.
Now fourteen years old, Marie has also arrived
in the Klond**e. The Reverend Dean is killed by
a stray bullet but the Ware family is reunited
after George is hit on the head again (by the
same person using the same weapon) and a
baby boot in his possession is matched to a
baby boot in Marie's possession.”
Maybe losing several reels was not a bad
idea and that's what Variety thought as well.
“Leonard D. Wharton, who wrote and produced
this picture must have thought he was at work
on another serial for which the brothers are
justly famed. But The Great White Trail isn't
a serial and at eight reels it seems to be 2,500
feet too long. When it is cut and a lot of that
continual string of mushers passing over the
Alaskan trail chopped out and someone with
a real sense of continuity has gone over it and
whipped the real action into shape,
it will be a corker!
The story is old fashioned melodrama with thrill
after thrill but these are separated by long
scenes of pretty snow that become tiresome.
It's a family affair who are torn apart by a
misunderstanding and must pass through a
number of most harrowing experiences before
all ends happily which will please all audiences.
The cast is uniformly fine with Miss Kenyon
performing most effectively.”
(35mm - courtesy Library and Archives Canada)
(1917 - Wharton Inc.)
DIR: Leopold D. Wharton;
SCRIPT: Gardner Hunting
& Leopold Wharton;
PHOTO: Ray June & Levi Bacon
CAST: Doris Kenyon (Prudence Carrington Ware/
Prudence Martling),
Paul Gordon (George Ware),
Thomas Holding (Rev. Arthur Dean),
F.W. Stewart (The "Vulture" of the trail),
Edgar L. Davenport (Albert Carrington),
Hans Robert (Charles Carrington, wayward
brother of Prudence),
Louise Hotelling (Marie)
A man believing his wife is unfaithful casts her and
their child out. The child is abandoned, the husband
and wife lose their memories, there is robbery, violence
and death before all is set right in the Klond**e goldfields.
This may be the strangest film at this year's show!
The Wharton brothers are probably best remembered
for their serial productions which may explain the
preponderance of plot points displayed in this film.
Leopold Wharton had gone to Ithaca New York in
1913 to film a football picture for Essanay. He saw
possibilities in the picturesque hills, cliffs, valleys and
waterfalls of the Finger Lakes and he, in conjunction
with his actor brother Theodore, started Wharton
Inc in 1914 and produced The Perils Of Pauline,
The Exploits Of Elaine, The New Exploits Of Elaine,
and The Romance of Elaine all with Pearl White as
well as other titles with Lionel and Ethel Barrymore,
Warner Oland, and Irene Castle.
The company ceased producing motion pictures in 1919.
The brothers never worked together again.
The scenes of the prospectors beginning their journey
on the “Great White Trail” were very effectively filmed
in the gorges and valleys above Cayuga Lake. 142
men from the Ithaca area and students from Cornell
were used in the scene at the Chilkoot Pass according
to the Ithaca Daily News in March 1917. Additional
photography was done on location in the Adirondacks
at Alaska City neat Port Henry New York. It was a
large outdoor set built by a colorful character named
“Caribou Bill” in 1915 to be used by Eastern film
companies filming Alaskan scenes and the Wharton's
went there when snow came late to the Ithaca
area and delayed shooting in that location.
Philip Carli played the film in Ithaca and had this to
say, “I played The Great White Trail last night in
Ithaca to 1600 people! The film's rather wild and
bewildering -- Leopold Wharton wrote an extremely
complicated serial-like scenario, he and brother
Theodore directed it and initially released it at 8 reels,
and then they cut it to 5 due to distribution difficulties
(they were handling it themselves). The result is
ultimate and excessive melodramatic compression,
like packing an atomic bomb in a small cardboard
suitcase: characters pop in and out sequentially,
disgrace and/or violent death happens every
five minutes or so, a baby is mislaid in a fit of
insanity, there are beatings (one of which causes
amnesia and another cures it), shootings, attempted
white slavery, several chases, and a fire, plus
THE GREAT WHITE TRAIL (the Chilkoot Pass
simulated by Taughannock Falls just outside Ithaca).
All this in seventy minutes.
A couple drove up from New Jersey to see it, can
you imagine!! I think it'll do all right in Massillon
this fall.”
With that in mind and at the suggestion of D.J.
Turner I'm including his brief synopsis so you'll
be prepared for every twist and turn: “It's very
busy/action packed with some humour and
coincidences galore. It looks like Back To God's
Country and The Grub-Stake combined.
Against her father's wishes, Prudence Carrington
marries George Ware rather than the Reverend
Arthur Dean. When George sees her with
Charles he does not realize it is her brother and
turns her out with their child Marie, believing her
to be unfaithful. Half demented, Prudence hides
the baby in a basket in the woods where it is
found by the Reverend Dean's dog.
Dean brings up the child and Prudence, suffering
memory loss, goes to the Klond**e as a nurse.
Dean also travels to the Klond**e to minister to
the gold miners. George, having learned of his
wife's innocence, travels to the Klond**e to find
her but he too loses his memory when he is hit
on the head by a lawless character called the
Vulture.
Now fourteen years old, Marie has also arrived
in the Klond**e. The Reverend Dean is killed by
a stray bullet but the Ware family is reunited
after George is hit on the head again (by the
same person using the same weapon) and a
baby boot in his possession is matched to a
baby boot in Marie's possession.”
Maybe losing several reels was not a bad
idea and that's what Variety thought as well.
“Leonard D. Wharton, who wrote and produced
this picture must have thought he was at work
on another serial for which the brothers are
justly famed. But The Great White Trail isn't
a serial and at eight reels it seems to be 2,500
feet too long. When it is cut and a lot of that
continual string of mushers passing over the
Alaskan trail chopped out and someone with
a real sense of continuity has gone over it and
whipped the real action into shape,
it will be a corker!
The story is old fashioned melodrama with thrill
after thrill but these are separated by long
scenes of pretty snow that become tiresome.
It's a family affair who are torn apart by a
misunderstanding and must pass through a
number of most harrowing experiences before
all ends happily which will please all audiences.
The cast is uniformly fine with Miss Kenyon
performing most effectively.”
(35mm - courtesy Library and Archives Canada)