Legal Advice
About Legal Advice
An eastern lawyer, played by Victoria Forde, arrives at Coyote Flats to practice. Judge Jim Miller tells her the town needs one. The cowboys build her a house and an office. Ranch foreman Tom, played by Tom Mix, falls for her and gets himself arrested so she will defend him: he takes the sheriff’s horse and shoots up the street. At the trial, while she is pleading, her husband walks in from the east.
Cast & crew
More about Legal Advice
Tom Mix directed, from his own story, and plays the foreman. William N. Selig produced. General Film released the one-reeler on 15 July 1916. Forde is the lawyer, called Vicky Sands on the cast list and Ruth Sands in a Moving Picture World synopsis. Pat Chrisman is the sheriff. George Pankey is Bill Peters. Sid Jordan is a ranch hand. Joe Ryan is her father.
Themes
Making
Mix writes himself a crime so the new lawyer has a client. The one reel spends the arrest on a stolen horse and a shot-up street, then ends the flirtation with a husband in the doorway.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- Silent Era marks the directing credit with a question and still names Mix. The Selig record credits him.
- The plan is release into her custody, not a jailbreak.
- The husband is the last entrance. He is already married to the lawyer the cowboys have been building a house for.
- Forde and Mix married in 1918, after both had Fox contracts.
- An Internet Archive copy is filed as silent-legal-advice.
Scenes
- The cowboys put up her house and her office.
- Tom rides the sheriff’s horse through town and is jailed.
- She is pleading when her husband appears in the door.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-legal-advice)
