The Clodhopper
About The Clodhopper
Everett Nelson works his father's farm at Beeler's Bend every day, Sundays included, in Isaac Nelson's old clothes. His mother buys him a mail-order suit. He takes Mary Martin to a picnic instead of the field. Isaac, who also runs the Farmers' State Bank, hauls him home and beats him with a razor strop. Everett runs to New York, asks for a janitor's job at a theater, and is put on a cabaret floor doing a dance he calls the clodhopper slide, at $200 a week. A rumor of bad investments starts a run on the bank. Mary comes to the city and brings him back. He saves the bank, and he and Mary marry.
Cast & crew
More about The Clodhopper
Thomas H. Ince supervised the five-reel Kay-Bee comedy drama. Victor Schertzinger directed. Monte M. Katterjohn wrote the scenario. Paul Eagler photographed it. A Moving Picture World item of April 28, 1917 says a special train took an Ince-Triangle company, including Schertzinger, Charles Ray, and Margery Wilson, to Norwalk. Working titles were The Ten Thousand Dollar Feet and The Clod Hopper. Triangle reissued it on January 4, 1920.
Themes
Reviews
Mack, in Variety, called it one of the best productions in many a day, said the story was first-rate, and wrote that Ray was at his best with no tendency to overplay.
Look
Paul Eagler shot the Beeler's Bend farm and the New York cabaret scenes, in black and white.
Music
Silent. No composer is credited.
Notes
- Charles Ray is Everett. Charles K. French is Isaac Nelson. Margery Wilson is Mary Martin. Lydia Knott is Everett's mother.
- The print runs about 4,557 feet.
- The Norwalk company named in Moving Picture World also included Howard Hicks and Jerome Storm.
- AFI notes it is unclear whether the print they viewed was the 1917 release or the 1920 reissue.
Scenes
- Isaac finds his wife doing Everett's field work and beats his son with a razor strop.
- In New York, Everett asks for a janitor's job and is hired to dance the clodhopper slide.
- Mary reaches the city during the run on the bank and takes him back to Beeler's Bend.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Clodhopper (1917).webm)
