The Eyes of the Totem
About The Eyes of the Totem
Mariam Hardy, her husband Jim, and their daughter Betty leave a northern mining claim after Jim sells it, and they take a steamer to Tacoma. A stranger with hard eyes kills Jim and takes the cash. Mariam, with no money, becomes a beggar. Over the years she joins respectable society and keeps looking for those eyes. A chance meeting shows her who the man is, and the film ends in a violent fight.
Cast & crew
More about The Eyes of the Totem
W. S. Van Dyke directed. E. C. Maxwell and W. W. Dickson wrote it. H. C. Weaver produced it, and Pathé Exchange distributed it. Abe Scholtz was the cinematographer. Weaver’s stage at Titlow Beach covered 50,000 square feet. This was one of three features the Tacoma company made between 1924 and 1928. Van Dyke also appears, uncredited, as the police chief.
Themes
Making
Van Dyke directed two pictures for Weaver in Tacoma before he moved on to the features that made his Hollywood name.
Look
Abe Scholtz shot the Tacoma locations, including the totem pole, the Winthrop Hotel, Annie Wright School, and Thornewood Castle, plus the Titlow Beach stage.
Music
Silent on release. The September 2015 screening at the Rialto used a newly written score.
Preservation
Long treated as lost, it was found in a New York vault in 2014, the only Weaver feature known to survive. The Tacoma Historical Society restored it and showed it again at the Rialto Theatre in September 2015.
Notes
- Wanda Hawley plays Mariam Hardy. Monte Wax plays Jim. Anne Cornwall plays Betty. Tom Santschi plays Philip La Rue. Gareth Hughes plays Bruce Huston. Bert Woodruff plays Toby.
- Violet Palmer plays Stella Haynes.
- Tacoma’s Broadway Theater opened the film on June 10, 1927.
- The producers had already watched a cut at the Rialto Theatre in 1926.
- The other Weaver features, Hearts and Fists and Heart of the Yukon, are not known to survive.
Scenes
- Jim sells the claim and the family boards a steamer for Tacoma.
- The steely-eyed stranger kills Jim and takes the money.
- Mariam, years later, recognizes the man and the fight starts.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Eyes of the Totem (1927).webm)
