Salomy Jane (1914 film)

Infobox Film
name = Salomy Jane


image_size =
caption =
director = William Nigh, Lucius Henderson
producer = Alexander E. Beyfuss
writer = Paul Armstrong (play and screenplay), Bret Harte (original story)
narrator =
starring =
music =
cinematography = Arthur A. Cadwell, Arthur Powelson
editing =
distributor = Alco Film Corporation
released = November 2, 1914
runtime = approximately one hour (six reels)
country = United States
language = Silent
English intertitles
budget =
gross =
imdb_id = 0004555

"Salomy Jane" is a 1914 action-Western feature film based on Bret Harte's 1898 novella of the same name. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=pVJAAAAAIAAJ Bret Harte's "Salomy Jane", a novella first published in 1898] ] The film is the only known surviving complete work of Beatriz Michelena and California Motion Picture Corporation.

The story takes place in rough-and-tumble Gold Rush-era California and revolves around a woman (Salomy Jane) who is saved from a ruffian (Red Pete) by a heroic stranger (Jack Dart). In turn, Salomy Jane saves Jack Dart from being wrongly lynched for a crime he didn't commit.

The story was shot again with the same title in 1923 by Famous Players-Lasky, [ [http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0004555/ Internet Movie Database. "Salomy Jane" (1914 film)] ] and remade as "Wild Girl" in 1932 by Fox Film Corporation. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023700/ Internet Movie Database. "Wild Girl" (1932)] ]

Firsts

"Salomy Jane" was the first feature by California Motion Picture Corporation and the first screen appearance by stage actress and singer Beatriz Michelena. Michelena had met George E. Middleton, an automobile dealer, in 1912 during an auto show in San Francisco and by 1914 they had married. Middleton saw in his Latina wife a possible competitor to Mary Pickford as premier screen star. The couple began making films at Middleton's studio; each one intended to be a star vehicle for Michelena. "Salomy Jane" was a hit with viewers, but Alco Film, its national distributor, was unable to return a profit to the movie makers. Two concurrent and several subsequent film projects were not profitable as well, and Michelena had begun demanding star treatment perquisites which were too expensive for the production company to sustain. Middleton and Michelena split from California Motion Picture to form their own film company, [http://www.imdb.com/company/co0006246/ Beatriz Michelena Features] , making [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190501/ "Just Squaw"] in 1919 and [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195710/ "The Flame of Hellgate"] in 1920. Middleton and Michelena divorced in the 1920s. [ [http://www.pacificsun.com/story.php?story_id=2409 Pacific Sun. Arts and Entertainment. September 26, 2008. Jason Walsh. Film: "Salomy's last dance: A flashback to Marin's century-old quest for cinematic superstardom"] ]

"Salomy Jane" has been cited as Jack Holt's first film appearance but he had been taking bit parts during the preceding year. [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/108743/Salomy-Jane/overview New York Times. Movies. "Salomy Jane (1914)" overview] ] In this movie he rides a horse to the edge of a very high, very steep embankment and jumps off of the horse to tumble more than a hundred feet into the Russian River. Volunteering for the stunt netted him a bit part as a saloon patron.

Restoration

The film was thought lost in a 1931 studio fire in San Rafael, California caused by a child's firecracker prank that destroyed the vault containing all of California Motion Picture Corporation's and Beatrice Michelena Studio's films. A print was discovered in Australia in 1996, and was preserved by the Library of Congress. New 35mm prints began limited circulation in 2008. [ [http://www.cafilm.org/rfc/events/946.html California Film Institute. Smith Rafael Film Center. "Salomy Jane": Introduced by historians David Kiehn and William Sagar, Piano Accompaniment by Bruce Loeb] ]

Cast

* Beatriz Michelena - Salomy Jane
* House Peters - Jack Dart, The Man
* William Pike - Red Pete
* Clara Beyers - Mrs. Heath (as Clara Byers)
* Lorraine Levy - Anna May
* Loretta Ephran - Mary Ann
* Walter Williams - Willie Smith
* Demetrios Mitsoras - Gallagher
* Andrew Robson - Yuba Bill
* Matt Snyder - Madison Clay
* Harold B. Meade - Baldwin
* Clarence Arper - Colonel Starbottle
* Harold Entwistle - Larabee
* Fred Snook - Seth Low
* Ernest Joy - Marbury
* William Nigh - Rufe Waters
* Jack Holt - Cowboy in saloon playing solitaire, stuntman (uncredited)

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0004555|title=Salomy Jane
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014431/ "Salomy Jane" (1923 film)]
* [http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/films/scfilms/photos/salomy.shtml Santa Cruz Public Libraries, California. On Location. Still photograph from "Salomy Jane"]