Salomy Jane
About Salomy Jane
In a California mining camp, Salomy Jane refuses a ruffian. Jack Dart kills the man after he attacks her. Dart is already wanted for a stagecoach robbery he did not commit. He is caught and about to be lynched when Salomy Jane gets him free.
Cast & crew
More about Salomy Jane
William Nigh and Lucius J. Henderson directed. Paul Armstrong adapted his own 1907 play, taken from Bret Harte's 1898 story "Salomy Jane's Kiss." It was the first feature from the California Motion Picture Corporation and the screen debut of Beatriz Michelena. Alco Films distributed it nationally and did not make a profit. The release date is 2 November 1914.
Themes
Background
Harte's Western sketches were still being turned into plays and films in the 1910s. Armstrong's stage version had opened in 1907.
Making
Middleton shot a Bret Harte Western as a starring vehicle for a stage singer, and sent it out through Alco rather than through a major studio.
Audiences
Audiences received it well. Alco still did not get its money back.
Preservation
A complete print survives. It is the only complete film known from Beatriz Michelena and from the California Motion Picture Corporation.
Notes
- House Peters plays Jack Dart. William Pike, Clara Beyers, and Jack Holt are also credited. Nigh appears in the cast as well as directing.
- Michelena's husband, George E. Middleton, built the company around her as a rival to Mary Pickford.
- It is the only complete surviving film of Michelena and of the California Motion Picture Corporation.
Scenes
- Dart kills the ruffian who will not leave Salomy Jane alone.
- She reaches him as the camp is about to hang him for the stagecoach hold-up.
Influenced by
- Salomy Jane's Kiss (Bret Harte, 1898)
- Salomy Jane (play, 1907)
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-salomy-jane)
