Customer Reviews

William S. Hart Silent Classics: Silent Man (1917) / Blue Blazes Rawden (1918)

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This DVD release contains 2 of Hart's films -One as a lumberjack and the other as his usual cowboy character. Each film runs just under one hour and both are basically fair films- nothing spectacular. The print quality for each film are quite good with suitable piano score backing. It's about time some of William S. Harts films became available on DVD rather than being locked up in some film archives around the world. Thanks Alpha video for this release , hopefully more will follow soon.

"The Silent Man" is Bill Hart at his best. He created the persona of
the "good bad man" and at the time it was new and exciting. Reviewers
at the time couldn't find fault with any of his films, even the ones
that were not quite up to the mark ("Blue Blazes Rawden" was not a great
movie - it was not set in the West but in the North country, where Hart
played a wild lumber-jack, finally redeemed through the kindness of the
mother of the man he killed).
"The Silent Man" was more like it. The beautiful ornate titles and the
wonderful Western scenery make this a great introduction to William S.
Hart. He plays "Silent" Bill Marr, who discovers gold but then has his
claim stolen by "Handsome" Jack Pressley (Robert McKim was a staple of
Hart's westerns. Throw in a pretty girl (Vola Vale was considered one of
the great beauties of the day), a hero worshipping kid brother and a
priest that is building a new church and you have a typical Hart Western.
I would highly recommend it.

Pennsylvania-based ALPHA VIDEO is owned by Jerry Greene, founder of Collectable Records. Quality of their unrestored movie transfers varies from fair to good, based on condition of source material stock. The only extras provided are a catalog insert and DVD-accessible title list.


Their dubs of THE SILENT MAN and BLUE BLAZES RAWDEN are quite good, with one important exception. Both title card sequences are freeze-framed and a ghostly ALPHA watermark appears at lower right screen. Also, the first few intertitles in each photoplay are again obviously still-frames.

A pleasing piano track is provided. The musician may not have been overly-familiar with these films while dubbing the audio. There's none of the usual flourishes and crescendi during sudden action. The music is mostly original with some familiar classical themes mixed in.


Mr. Hart, he of the distinctive long face, plays a flawed individual in both, in fact, his character in "Rawden" is a rather villainous sort.

'Blue Blazes' is a lumberjack come to town to spend some hard-earned cash. He gets involved in a poker game that goes wrong, and makes a move on a saloon-owner's woman right while the man is there watching. The proprietor, 'Ladyfingers' Hilgard, is no angel either. These two stags immediately lock horns in a one-on-one brawl that leaves Hilgard dead and Rawden with control of the town and gorgeous Babette DuFresne all his own. Then Ladyfingers' mom and kid brother arrive from England and again Blue Blazes shows a lack of character by deceiving them on how Hilgard perished. That he tries to redeem the dead man's reputation for their peace of mind doesn't fully absolve Rawden of his sins. The story has an unusually bleak ending.

In the first picture, "Silent Man" Bud Barr is a prospector who has his claim on a rich vein of gold stolen by a corrupt saloon owner and bigamist who marries women just to enslave them at his watering hole. Barr responds to having his claim jumped by robbing a stagecoach transporting purloined gold dust. (What's that old saying about "two wrongs"?) But at least this time, Barr was an innocent man wronged, and the bad guys get theirs in the end.

Judging solely from these two works, in director/star Bill Hart's West, men didn't wear white or black hats, but different shades of gray. Editorializing aside, both movies are entertaining, far better than a good percentage of western programmers of 15 or 20 years later, and he is a most watchable lead.


Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll ratings.

(6.3) The Silent Man (silent-1917) - William S. Hart/Vola Vale/Robert McKim/Dorcas Matthews/J.P. Lockney/George Nichols/Gertrude Claire/Milton Ross/Harold Goodwin

(6.4) Blue Blazes Rawden (silent-1918) William S. Hart/Maudie George/Robert McKim/Gertrude Claire/Robert Gordon/Jack Hoxie