User Reviews

I picked up an old show-at-home (circa 1940s) 16mm print of this film, and have transferred it, scored it and uploaded it to YouTube. This film can be viewed online at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=69D7AC682F4A0E1C

It's nice to see the film with its original titles; the main cards are stylized text superimposed over woodland shots. There is a lot of great location work in this independent production. The survival rate on Edgar Jones' many short films is not great, and same goes for early roles of Evelyn Brent who plays the love interest. The film is a Canadian Mountie tale of bootleggers and love. The acting and direction is pretty decent as well.

In the late 1910s and early 1920s Edgar Jones had a film studio in Augusta, Maine, where he made "north woods" adventure films about Canadian mounties and Maine lumbermen. These were mostly one- and two-reel films which Jones also produced and directed.

Earlier in the teens, Jones had been a Western star for Lubin studio in Philadelphia, where he was often teamed with Clara Williams or Louise Huff (whom he eventually married). At some point in the late teens or early 20s, Jones partnered with Maine writer Holman Day, who eventually took over the Augusta studio. Their collaboration culminated in the first feature film shot in Maine, the now lost RIDER OF THE KING LOG (1921).

Jones was able to attract well-known actors of the day to Maine to film in the woods and on the Kennebec River. Here we have Jones as Lt. Blunt, a Canadian mountie out to capture a gang of moonshiners, Ben Hendricks, Jr. As Jean Lamont and Carlton Brickert as Buck Dubuque (the IMDb credits are wrong). A very young Evelyn Brent plays the heroine torn between her love for her brother (Brickert) and for Blunt (Jones).

Straightforward 2-reeler starts out at the intersection of Water and Bridge Streets where Jones is escorting a captured criminal across the Calumet Bridge (although story takes place in Canada). Plot involves murder, mistaken identity, and an escape across the river to Maine.

Best scene is the extended fight between Jones and Brickert. Worth seeking out.