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The Squaw Man

1931, Movie, NR, 106 mins

The Squaw Man: Review

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Cecil B. DeMille, never a man to refrain from beating a good thing into the ground, filmed this old stage play for the third time here. The film tells the story of Baxter, an English captain who assumes the guilt for his embezzling aristocrat cousin, Cavanagh--whose wife (Boardman) Baxter loves--and flees to the American West. He soon makes an enemy of rustler Bickford, from whose clutches he rescues Indian maiden Velez. He marries the Spanish-accented Indian woman and soon she bears him a child, Moore. Later, Velez kills Bickford as a sort of favor to her new husband. Boardman, Baxter's true love and wife of Cavanagh, shows up out West to tell Baxter that Cavanagh has died after confessing his guilt and that Baxter has inherited his title and estate. The sheriff comes around to arrest Velez for Bickford's murder and Velez conveniently commits suicide, leaving Baxter free to return to England with Boardman and little Moore. DeMille, despite telling a Baltimore reporter, "I love this story so much that as long as I live I will make it every 10 years," was not at all happy to remake his debut feature. He was anxious to get out of a three-picture contract with MGM and this seemed like the least painful way to complete his obligation to the company. In the first two versions (1914, 1918) he used real Indians to play Indians but now he was restrained by Hollywood standards and had to hire Velez as Baxter's eponymous "squaw." On the set she was a terror, foul-mouthed and unreliable. DeMille was so depressed and devoid of ideas that he asked for a copy of his 1914 version to be sent out to the location. He became even more depressed when he learned that all the copies were destroyed in a Philadelphia laboratory fire (although a print did surface later). This is certainly the weakest of the three versions, overlong and dull, although it does have a lively performance by Velez. After the shoot, DeMille retreated to his yacht to indulge his hobby of deep-sea diving. He never got around to making a fourth or fifth SQUAW MAN. The 1914 movie version of the play (which opened on Broadway in 1907 with famed cowboy star William S. Hart as the villainous Cash Hawkins) ran for only half the time of this sound version. It was the director's first feature (this was his 57th), and the first feature-length picture ever to be made in Hollywood. Its leading lady, Winifred Kingston, has a bit part in the sound version, which features dialog by the former Broadway musical star Elsie Janis. leave a comment
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