The Better Man
About The Better Man
Jim Saunders gambles at the saloon and leaves his wife with a child who is choking with croup. Miguel Gomez, a Mexican outlaw with a $1,000 reward on him, comes in demanding food. She tells him to help himself, then asks him to fetch a doctor miles away. On the trail Jim recognizes Gomez and holds him at gunpoint. Gomez throws Jim off a cliff, takes his horse, and brings the doctor back in time to save the child. Jim, recovered, bursts in to arrest him. His wife tells him what Gomez did. Jim says the outlaw is the better man, and the family lets Gomez leave.
Cast & crew
More about The Better Man
Rollin S. Sturgeon directed. Hazel B. Hubbard wrote it. Vitagraph released the one-reel Western on December 27, 1912, through the General Film Company, as that week's Friday title in the company's six-a-week program. Robert Thornby plays Jim Saunders, Anne Schaefer his wife, George Stanley plays Gomez, and Charles Bennett the doctor. Moving Picture World printed the synopsis on December 21, 1912.
Themes
Preservation
A portion survives. The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound and the George Eastman Museum hold 35mm positives. Part of the film is on the 2000 DVD Treasures of the West.
Notes
- A full-page Vitagraph advertisement in Moving Picture World of December 28, 1912, listed it among seven reels the company was shipping that week.
- The reward named in the Moving Picture World synopsis is $1,000.
- A surviving portion was included on the 2000 DVD Treasures of the West.
- Prints are held by the New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound and by the George Eastman Museum.
Scenes
- Gomez throws Jim off a cliff, takes the horse, and rides for the doctor.
- Jim comes through the door to make the arrest and is told the outlaw saved his child.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-the-better-man)
- Treasures of the West DVD (2000)
