Salomy Jane is a 1914 silentWesterndrama film based on Bret Harte's 1898 novella "Salomy Jane's Kiss" and Paul Armstrong's 1907 play based on Harte's story, Salomy Jane.[2]
Salomy Jane was California Motion Picture Corporation's (CMPC) debut feature, as well as the screen debut of stage actress and singer Beatriz Michelena.[1]George E. Middleton saw in his Latina wife a competitor to Mary Pickford as a premier screen star, and each CMPC production was intended to be a Michelena vehicle. Despite being well received by the public, it did not return a profit for the national distributor, Alco Films. It is the only known surviving complete work of silent film era actress Beatriz Michelena and the CMPC.
In rough-and-tumble Gold Rush-era California, Salomy Jane is saved from the ruffian Baldwin by a heroic stranger (the Man, aka Jack Dart), and he is saved from a lynching after being falsely accused of a crime.
Jack Holt as Cowboy in saloon playing solitaire, stuntman (uncredited). Salomy Jane includes a scene in which Holt rides a horse to the edge of a steep embankment. then jumps off tumbling more than a hundred feet down into the Russian River. The stunt netted him a bit part as a saloon patron. This role was long cited as his debut appearance in film, but he had been playing bit parts the preceding year.[3]
Reception
Salomy Jane was first shown at an invitation-only, gala event on October 8, 1914 at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The film made its public debut a few weeks alter on October 25, when it played a seven day engagement at San Francisco's Portola theater.[4]
It is a picture of fire and beauty, full of Bret Harte's spirit of adventure and glorious with the wondrous country which he loved. ... in places it seems a bit hard emotionally; a bit crude, bordering on slapstick, in action. In places, the action is confused, due to its rapidity and the number of players concerned, but on the whole it is a pleasant thing to witness, in addition to its scenic wonders ...[5]
Here is a Western drama at its best. ... The scenario is a model of clarity, despite its emphasis on swift and frequent incident. ... It is all action, action and again action, with a thrill for every second flicker ... Beatriz Michelena and House Peters ... give their work every touch to strengthen the illusion of reality ...[6]
Rediscovery and restoration
All California Motion Picture Corporation and Beatrice Michelena Studio films were believed to have been lost due to a 1931 studio fire in San Rafael, California,[1][7] caused by a child's firecracker prank that destroyed the vault in which the films were stored. However, a print was found in Australia in 1996, and has been preserved by the Library of Congress.[7] New 35mm prints began limited circulation in 2008.[8] The restoration was part of a DVD released (2011) by the National Film Preservation Foundation in the anthology Treasures 5: The West 1898–1938.
^ ab"Salomy Jane (1914)". American Film Institute. A 1931 fire destroyed what appeared to be their [Michelena Studios] entire inventory of films. However, the 26 Sep 2008 Pacific Sun in Marin County reported that a 35mm print of Salomy Jane was found in Australia in 1996, and restored by the Library of Congress and the National Film Preservation Foundation.
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