The End of the Game

1919 50 minutes Directed by Jesse D. Hampton

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About The End of the Game

In a California gold town in 1849, Frank Miller loses his money in a crooked card game while his sister Mary waits at the hotel. Burke Allister, a Virginia gambler, makes the gang let Frank win it back. Faro Ed shoots Frank. Allister kills Ed. He and Mary take a claim that does not pay. Dan Middleton wants Mary and sends Four-Ace Baker to tell her Allister was in on her brother's death. She believes it. When she is hurt and Allister goes for a doctor, Middleton's men catch him, and Mary leaves with Middleton. Allister gets free, finds them, and fights Middleton, who goes over a cliff.

Cast & crew

More about The End of the Game

Jesse D. Hampton produced and directed. F. McGrew Willis and George Elwood Jenks wrote it. Charles J. Stumar photographed. J. Warren Kerrigan plays Burke Allister. Lois Wilson plays Mary Miller. Gayne Whitman, billed as Alfred Whitman, plays Frank Miller. Jack Richardson is Dan Middleton. George Field is Four-Ace Baker. Milton Ross is Faro Ed. Also billed are Walter Perry, Elinor Fair, Bert Appling, and Joseph J. Franz. W. W. Hodkinson Corporation and Pathé Exchange distributed it. Released 24 March 1919. Five reels, 4,779 feet, listed at 50 minutes.

Themes

  • A crooked faro game
  • A lie about a murder
  • A fight on a cliff
  • Burke Allister
  • Mary Miller
  • gold rush
  • Dan Middleton
  • J. Warren Kerrigan

Background

The AFI subject list places the story in California from 1846 to 1850, in a mining town of gamblers and gangs.

Making

Hampton made it as a five-reel Western for his own company and split the release between Hodkinson and Pathé.

Look

Charles J. Stumar photographed the card game, the claim, and the cliff fight.

Preservation

Preserved at the EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam. The Commons file is that EYE print.

Notes

  • The story is set in the California gold rush of 1849, not in a later camp.
  • Wikipedia records a print at the EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. The old claim that no copy survives is wrong.
  • Elinor Fair plays Mona. Walter Perry plays Wild Bill. Bert Appling plays the sheriff.

Scenes

  • Allister forces the gang to let Frank win his money back, and Faro Ed shoots Frank anyway.
  • Baker tells Mary that Allister helped kill her brother.
  • Middleton goes over the cliff in the last fight.

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (The End of the Game - Jesse D. Hampton - 1919 - Jesse D. Hampton Productions - EYE FLM18665 - OB 685709.ogv)