A fairly standard silent western without much to lift it out of the standard mold. Although Hart would later become extremely proficient at choosing his vehicles, this one doesn't have much to recommend that would draw attention to it -- for Hart fans only.
7 Reviews
An Innovative And Powerful Western
thespisgmiller29 May 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Bill Hart developed characterizations in his films that were often copied and elaborated on by numerous "Western" Heroes throughout film history. "The Return Of Draw Egan" is one of the signature works of his career.
It opens with an energetic chase scene showing Egan's band of outlaws (Hart often played men on the wrong side of the law) trying to evade a posse of lawmen. A gun battle ensues where the outlaws are seemingly trapped in a remote shack. Hart (Draw Egan) opens a trap door that leads to a tunnel which allows all the men to escape before they are overwhelmed by the peace officers. Egan encourages each man to leave before he follows, which all except one "rogue" outlaw (who will come back later to cross paths with the changed Hart) obeys. Hart himself waits until all the men are safely away before entering the tunnel, touching a dead comrade reverently on his way out.
Fade in to a later time period where Hart enters a saloon in the notoriously dangerous town of Yellow Dog (named after the typical wild dog of the old west), and watches bemused as an overactive barfly challenges his stoicism. Hart (now under the name of Blake) finishes the coward with one well connected blow, and is subsequently offered the much avoided position of town marshal. He takes it for the money and is planning on moving on soon, until he is "stopped" by the fetching daughter of the mayor, whereby he proceeds to settle into respectable life.
Of course all does not go easy, what with the Egan character occasionally showing itself: especially effective is one sequence where the sheriff longingly watches a gang of rowdies terrorizing an upright citizen and wishes he was with them ( he often shows a "Mona Lisa" smile when these feelings come over him), but quickly suppresses the feeling after he realizes his new duties. This inner torment is reminiscent of such later icons as Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott.
And similar to the western movies of Cooper and Scott, little gun play is enacted during the course of this film (until the final showdown, which is appropriately short and brutal). Instead Hart, who also directed this film, relies on subtle gestures and meaningful facial expressions to express his inner torment and move the narrative along. He is a loner who is tired of being alone, a gunman who would rather use the force of his presence than his guns to effect an outcome, a man who wishes to settle down and enjoy a simple life but is uncertain that it will ever happen. Like the best Western Heroes, an enigma.
This is a film that shows it power through quiet introspective images that will grow stronger with each successive viewing.
It opens with an energetic chase scene showing Egan's band of outlaws (Hart often played men on the wrong side of the law) trying to evade a posse of lawmen. A gun battle ensues where the outlaws are seemingly trapped in a remote shack. Hart (Draw Egan) opens a trap door that leads to a tunnel which allows all the men to escape before they are overwhelmed by the peace officers. Egan encourages each man to leave before he follows, which all except one "rogue" outlaw (who will come back later to cross paths with the changed Hart) obeys. Hart himself waits until all the men are safely away before entering the tunnel, touching a dead comrade reverently on his way out.
Fade in to a later time period where Hart enters a saloon in the notoriously dangerous town of Yellow Dog (named after the typical wild dog of the old west), and watches bemused as an overactive barfly challenges his stoicism. Hart (now under the name of Blake) finishes the coward with one well connected blow, and is subsequently offered the much avoided position of town marshal. He takes it for the money and is planning on moving on soon, until he is "stopped" by the fetching daughter of the mayor, whereby he proceeds to settle into respectable life.
Of course all does not go easy, what with the Egan character occasionally showing itself: especially effective is one sequence where the sheriff longingly watches a gang of rowdies terrorizing an upright citizen and wishes he was with them ( he often shows a "Mona Lisa" smile when these feelings come over him), but quickly suppresses the feeling after he realizes his new duties. This inner torment is reminiscent of such later icons as Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott.
And similar to the western movies of Cooper and Scott, little gun play is enacted during the course of this film (until the final showdown, which is appropriately short and brutal). Instead Hart, who also directed this film, relies on subtle gestures and meaningful facial expressions to express his inner torment and move the narrative along. He is a loner who is tired of being alone, a gunman who would rather use the force of his presence than his guns to effect an outcome, a man who wishes to settle down and enjoy a simple life but is uncertain that it will ever happen. Like the best Western Heroes, an enigma.
This is a film that shows it power through quiet introspective images that will grow stronger with each successive viewing.
Standard Hart story, beautifully written by C. Gardner Sullivan
morrisonhimself5 April 2015
Almost a hundred years ago, at this writing (April 2015), William S. Hart and writer C. Gardner Sullivan were creating a type of motion picture that set the pattern for hundreds of westerns to come, maybe even thousands.
It was called "the good bad-man" story, in which a robber or other law-breaker gets converted, often through the love for a good woman.
In "The Return of Draw Egan," that woman is played by "Marguery" Wilson, who is usually known as "Margery." Her 1916 eye make-up is awfully obvious and even garish, but ignoring that lets one see she really was attractive, and one can easily understand why Draw Egan would want to change his ways.
Fleeing from a posse, Egan is invited to a town, Yellow Dog, where he meets her and other good citizens and there the story actually begins.
Having been a fan of William S. Hart even before actually seeing any of his films, I was already prepared to like "The Return of Draw Egan," and I was grateful to find it on YouTube, in a pretty good-looking version.
I can highly recommend this to anyone who will watch it with the 1916 context in mind. Remember, this was pioneering work. I love it, and hope you do too.
It was called "the good bad-man" story, in which a robber or other law-breaker gets converted, often through the love for a good woman.
In "The Return of Draw Egan," that woman is played by "Marguery" Wilson, who is usually known as "Margery." Her 1916 eye make-up is awfully obvious and even garish, but ignoring that lets one see she really was attractive, and one can easily understand why Draw Egan would want to change his ways.
Fleeing from a posse, Egan is invited to a town, Yellow Dog, where he meets her and other good citizens and there the story actually begins.
Having been a fan of William S. Hart even before actually seeing any of his films, I was already prepared to like "The Return of Draw Egan," and I was grateful to find it on YouTube, in a pretty good-looking version.
I can highly recommend this to anyone who will watch it with the 1916 context in mind. Remember, this was pioneering work. I love it, and hope you do too.
Margery Wilson Was a Typical 19teens Heroine!!
kidboots16 May 2014
Warning: Spoilers
William S. Hart was one of the original stars of the Triangle Film Corp. He had a contract with Ince which he regarded as a personal bond and which caused him to turn down offers from Paralta and Essanay out of loyalty to Ince. But Ince saw him as an employee and was not above exploiting Hart by keeping him in the dark as regards his popularity and paying him minimum wages. One of the company's founders then imported some Broadway stars (Douglas Fairbanks, Olive Thomas etc) at huge salaries, then almost at the same time he found out how popular he really was. The writing was on the wall and Hart resigned from Triangle - which then collapsed (lucky he didn't go to Paralta which went under the following year)!!!
The reviewer from "Moving Picture World" (1916) gave it a glowing critique - very soon it was to be that even a below par Hart western would find high praise from the critics. "The Return of Draw Egan" finds Hart in terrific form as an outlaw returning from the dead to settle an old score. Flowery titles are as much a part of Hart's West as the gritty realism, so the town Yellow Dog is described as "a mongrel of the desert, inclined to show it's teeth to strangers".
Draw Egan has escaped the fiery gun battle that pitted him and his gang against a sheriff's posse and has been deputized by a reformer from the lawless Yellow Dog who sees how Egan's strength and steeliness quell a rampaging mob. Enter "Arizona Joe" ("concealing beneath an air of bluster a streak of yellow as wide as a barn door"), Draw's old gang nemesis and once again covering his cowardice with lots of bragging. Poppy (old faithful Louise Glaum) the dance hall queen, convinces Joe (old stalwart Robert McKim) to make trouble - because Draw has fallen in love with the reformer's daughter Myrtle (Margery Wilson) and has let the town go to pot!! It is easy for Poppy and Joe to bring loose living and recklessness back to popularity!! Joe threatens to tell the whole town and Myrtle in particular about Joe's unsavoury past, if the boys are not given a free reign but when they try to run the "amen shouters" out of town Draw finally finds his missing courage.
Margery Wilson's main claim to fame was as "Brown Eyes" in the French story from "Intolerance". Rescued by D.W. Griffith from the never ending grind of shorts she was immediately given the heroine's role in "The Return of Draw Egan" but she looked a typical 19teens actress - all eyes, sweetness and sausage curls, she didn't have enough personality to stand out from the rest of the "sweet young things" and so she faded from view!!
The reviewer from "Moving Picture World" (1916) gave it a glowing critique - very soon it was to be that even a below par Hart western would find high praise from the critics. "The Return of Draw Egan" finds Hart in terrific form as an outlaw returning from the dead to settle an old score. Flowery titles are as much a part of Hart's West as the gritty realism, so the town Yellow Dog is described as "a mongrel of the desert, inclined to show it's teeth to strangers".
Draw Egan has escaped the fiery gun battle that pitted him and his gang against a sheriff's posse and has been deputized by a reformer from the lawless Yellow Dog who sees how Egan's strength and steeliness quell a rampaging mob. Enter "Arizona Joe" ("concealing beneath an air of bluster a streak of yellow as wide as a barn door"), Draw's old gang nemesis and once again covering his cowardice with lots of bragging. Poppy (old faithful Louise Glaum) the dance hall queen, convinces Joe (old stalwart Robert McKim) to make trouble - because Draw has fallen in love with the reformer's daughter Myrtle (Margery Wilson) and has let the town go to pot!! It is easy for Poppy and Joe to bring loose living and recklessness back to popularity!! Joe threatens to tell the whole town and Myrtle in particular about Joe's unsavoury past, if the boys are not given a free reign but when they try to run the "amen shouters" out of town Draw finally finds his missing courage.
Margery Wilson's main claim to fame was as "Brown Eyes" in the French story from "Intolerance". Rescued by D.W. Griffith from the never ending grind of shorts she was immediately given the heroine's role in "The Return of Draw Egan" but she looked a typical 19teens actress - all eyes, sweetness and sausage curls, she didn't have enough personality to stand out from the rest of the "sweet young things" and so she faded from view!!
Outlaw and Sheriff Become One
briantaves15 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Outlaw becomes sheriff in the feature THE RETURN OF DRAW EGAN (1916), suggesting the two are not so distinct after all. As I outline in my biography of Thomas Ince, he permitted William S. Hart to develop the western in his own manner, diverging from the formulas Ince felt had been exhausted.
In New Mexico, a $1000 reward is offered for Egan, and when he and his gang is trapped in a cabin, Egan lets them out one by one through a trap door, and a tunnel, out to waiting horses. Only Arizona Joe (Robert McKim), whose bravado conceals a yellow streak, allows himself to be captured. Months later, Egan is in Broken Hope, a town where no one asks about a man's past. He is spotted by Mat Buckton, sent to hire a sheriff to clean up Yellow Dog. Known there as William Blake, Egan is about to forget his vow when he meets Buckton's daughter, Myrtle (Marguery Wilson), the kind of girl he had only heard about but never met.
Egan wins reluctant admiration and healthy fear when he announces new ways in town and the closing of the saloon on Sunday. He has no interest in the dancer, Poppy (Louise Glaum). Still, Egan is not about to go to church until he sees Myrtle going. Meanwhile, Joe escapes jail, creating viewer uncertainty over how the cover will survive that has allowed Egan's reformation. With Myrtle, Egan realizes he is "One of the many men to discover he is in love and unworthy." Poppy is frustrated since the law prevents her admirers from shooting each other for her amusement, and she teams up with Joe. He threatens to tell Myrtle of Egan's past, inciting the saloon men to lawlessness, placing them against the reformers, ordering the latter to leave town. The camera tracks dramatically before Egan as he exits the sheriff=s office toward the mob. Joe exposes Egan's past, and he announces his resignation before then he will face off with Joe. This time, Egan advances into the camera itself. It is precisely the code of "honor among thieves" that Egan knew, and Joe lacked, that separate the two, and make one a possible lawman and doom the other.
The lawbreakers eliminated, Egan surrenders to the townspeople. Instead, they decide they want to retain Egan as sheriff. Only Myrtle's pleading convinces him to stay then nothing can make him leave.
In New Mexico, a $1000 reward is offered for Egan, and when he and his gang is trapped in a cabin, Egan lets them out one by one through a trap door, and a tunnel, out to waiting horses. Only Arizona Joe (Robert McKim), whose bravado conceals a yellow streak, allows himself to be captured. Months later, Egan is in Broken Hope, a town where no one asks about a man's past. He is spotted by Mat Buckton, sent to hire a sheriff to clean up Yellow Dog. Known there as William Blake, Egan is about to forget his vow when he meets Buckton's daughter, Myrtle (Marguery Wilson), the kind of girl he had only heard about but never met.
Egan wins reluctant admiration and healthy fear when he announces new ways in town and the closing of the saloon on Sunday. He has no interest in the dancer, Poppy (Louise Glaum). Still, Egan is not about to go to church until he sees Myrtle going. Meanwhile, Joe escapes jail, creating viewer uncertainty over how the cover will survive that has allowed Egan's reformation. With Myrtle, Egan realizes he is "One of the many men to discover he is in love and unworthy." Poppy is frustrated since the law prevents her admirers from shooting each other for her amusement, and she teams up with Joe. He threatens to tell Myrtle of Egan's past, inciting the saloon men to lawlessness, placing them against the reformers, ordering the latter to leave town. The camera tracks dramatically before Egan as he exits the sheriff=s office toward the mob. Joe exposes Egan's past, and he announces his resignation before then he will face off with Joe. This time, Egan advances into the camera itself. It is precisely the code of "honor among thieves" that Egan knew, and Joe lacked, that separate the two, and make one a possible lawman and doom the other.
The lawbreakers eliminated, Egan surrenders to the townspeople. Instead, they decide they want to retain Egan as sheriff. Only Myrtle's pleading convinces him to stay then nothing can make him leave.
Early western masterpiece from silent era
happytrigger-64-39051724 October 2022
The return od Draw Egan is a 50 minutes early western from 1916 with iconic William Hart. It can be considered as a masterpiece with Hart playing a bandit becoming a honest Marshall in a corrupted town. William Hart has a luminous face with a sharp look for every situation, don't miss his fast shooting. Salloon's scenes are a success with lot of tension between the corrupted and the honest. The return of Draw Egan might be one of the very first western to present this situation we'll see in lot of later westerns, well I'll have to find titles with similar subject in that early era. And William Hart is really a great actor, I just regret he didn't go further.
Highly Entertaining Western from Hart
Michael_Elliott16 March 2011
Return of Draw Egan, The (1916)
*** (out of 4)
Bandit Draw Egan (William S. Hart) goes into the city of Yellow Dog where he's mistaken for a good man. A society man offers him the job as Marshall and he reluctantly takes it for reasons we don't know. He eventually falls in love with a local woman (Margery Wilson) but soon a former foe (Robert McKim) arrives in town and threatens to blow his identity. The more films from Hart that I see the more I'm coming to realize that he loved playing the bad guy who for some reason decides to go straight. THE RETURN OF DRAW EGAN runs around 50-minutes and it's an extremely fast-paced and exciting Western but at the same time you have to wonder why Hart didn't try and explain things a little better. By 1916 he was already a major star so perhaps he just felt audiences would accept whatever they were given and that's why his bad guy just turns good for no apparent reason. What impressed me most about this film is Hart's direction as he really does a fantastic job at making the thing feel very realistic. The locations all look wonderful and Hart manages to use them to build up a terrific bit at atmosphere that really makes you feel as if you're in this town and there's no hope for anything good until Hart's character shows up. The director also does a wonderful job making sure there aren't any slow moments as we get out of the gate with an action scene as well as close with one but everything in between contains a nice bit of drama and thankfully things never get slow. There's no question that this is the type of role that Hart has been playing for a few years so it fits it nicely. That terrific face of his is just perfect for the silent pictures and he has no trouble getting across a good performance. Both Wilson and McKim add nice support in their roles. At just 50-minutes there's really no twists or turns that you won't see coming. Everything pretty much happens exactly as you'd expect it to but this really doesn't take away from any of the entertainment.
*** (out of 4)
Bandit Draw Egan (William S. Hart) goes into the city of Yellow Dog where he's mistaken for a good man. A society man offers him the job as Marshall and he reluctantly takes it for reasons we don't know. He eventually falls in love with a local woman (Margery Wilson) but soon a former foe (Robert McKim) arrives in town and threatens to blow his identity. The more films from Hart that I see the more I'm coming to realize that he loved playing the bad guy who for some reason decides to go straight. THE RETURN OF DRAW EGAN runs around 50-minutes and it's an extremely fast-paced and exciting Western but at the same time you have to wonder why Hart didn't try and explain things a little better. By 1916 he was already a major star so perhaps he just felt audiences would accept whatever they were given and that's why his bad guy just turns good for no apparent reason. What impressed me most about this film is Hart's direction as he really does a fantastic job at making the thing feel very realistic. The locations all look wonderful and Hart manages to use them to build up a terrific bit at atmosphere that really makes you feel as if you're in this town and there's no hope for anything good until Hart's character shows up. The director also does a wonderful job making sure there aren't any slow moments as we get out of the gate with an action scene as well as close with one but everything in between contains a nice bit of drama and thankfully things never get slow. There's no question that this is the type of role that Hart has been playing for a few years so it fits it nicely. That terrific face of his is just perfect for the silent pictures and he has no trouble getting across a good performance. Both Wilson and McKim add nice support in their roles. At just 50-minutes there's really no twists or turns that you won't see coming. Everything pretty much happens exactly as you'd expect it to but this really doesn't take away from any of the entertainment.
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