Back to God's Country
About Back to God's Country
After an outlaw kills her father, Dolores, played by Nell Shipman, marries Peter. On an Arctic voyage she finds that the captain is the killer. He arranges an accident that leaves Peter hurt, and the ship anchors in a remote harbor. In Shipman's script Dolores, not the Great Dane of the source story, is the one who saves her husband.
Cast & crew
More about Back to God's Country
David Hartford is the credited director. Bert Van Tuyle also directed and is not on the credit. Nell Shipman wrote the script from James Oliver Curwood's story Wapi the Walrus and changed the hero from the dog to Dolores. Curwood objected. Ernest Shipman raised the money in Calgary. Shooting ran from 12 or 13 March to 31 May 1919, first at Lesser Slave Lake, then Calgary, and finished at the Kern River and in San Francisco. The cost was $165,000. Joseph Walker photographed it, opening the lens wide the way he had learned from Billy Bitzer so the background went soft. One mushing scene was shot at about minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Ronald Byram died of pneumonia at Lesser Slave Lake and Wheeler Oakman replaced him. Van Tuyle lost toes to frostbite.
Themes
In film history
One of the earliest Canadian feature films, shot in part at Lesser Slave Lake and finished in California.
Making
Shipman enlarged Dolores until she saves Peter. Curwood was angry. The commercial result was a large profit.
Audiences
It grossed a million and a half dollars, reported as a 300 percent profit, despite Curwood's objection to the script.
Look
Joseph Walker shot Dolores large in the frame and the background soft, using a wide-open lens as Billy Bitzer had taught him. A trek across snow was filmed near minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
Notes
- The company name during shooting shifted from Shipman Curwood Productions to Curwood-Carver Productions, which is the name on the credits.
- Curwood's story was, in Shipman's words, trash as a movie and a mere outline.
- The film grossed a million and a half dollars and is described as a 300 percent profit.
Scenes
- Dolores recognizes the captain as the man who killed her father.
- She takes the rescue that Curwood had written for the dog.
Influenced by
- James Oliver Curwood, Wapi the Walrus
