The Grub Stake
About The Grub Stake
Faith Diggs models for artists until she is fired when her robe slips, then sells her hair to buy medicine for her father, Skipper, who has rheumatism. Mark Leroy, a gambler already married in the South, takes them toward Dawson with a promise of a laundry and a secret marriage, meaning to put Faith to work as a prostitute. Dawson Kate tells her the truth, and Faith, Skipper, and prospector Malamute Mike flee into the wilderness, where a bear leads Faith to food and water. Mark falls from a cliff in a fight and is killed. The next spring Faith and Kate's son Jeb have a child.
Cast & crew
More about The Grub Stake
Nell Shipman wrote the screenplay and co-directed with Bert Van Tuyle. Investors put up $180,000. The company shot from March to August 1922; Seattle and Dawson interiors were made at Minnehaha Studios in Spokane. American Releasing Corporation took distribution and went bankrupt before the film returned revenue. Shipman was paid only for promoting it, her company failed, and she made no further feature.
Themes
Making
Shipman brought bears, wolves, and 22 Alaskan malamutes from her zoo. Brownie the Bear bit Van Tuyle's hand, severing tendons and breaking bones. On April 17, 1925 a judge ordered the animals sold to cover $795 she owed Sam Byers. Judge Charles Heitman cancelled the auction. The animals later went to the San Diego Zoo.
Reviews
Exhibitors Trade Review praised the scenes of Faith in the wilderness and the climax. The Film Daily praised the photography and Shipman's athletic work and criticized the lighting in some interiors. L. C. Moen, in Motion Picture News, called the opening uninteresting and praised the storm and the dance-hall scenes.
Look
Joseph Walker and Robert Newhard photographed the film. Exteriors were shot around Spokane, Ione, Lake Pend Oreille, and Priest Lake. Seattle and Dawson interiors were shot at Minnehaha Studios.
Music
Silent, with English intertitles. No composer is credited.
Preservation
Tom Trusky found a surviving print in the British Film Institute.
Notes
- Also released as The Romance of Lost Valley and The Golden Yukon. Aywon Film Corporation is listed as a distributor.
- Alfred Allen plays Mark Leroy. Walt Whitman plays Skipper Diggs. Hugh Thompson plays Jeb, Kate's son, not the gambler.
- Ah Wing plays Wong, Mark's servant. On Mark's orders he tries to kill Skipper with an overdose of medicine.
- Malamute Mike, played by George Berrell, talks to an empty leash. His dog Yukon is alive.
- Lillian Leighton plays Dawson Kate. Her son thinks she is Dawson's postmaster. She works at the dance hall.
- A mountie hunts Faith, Skipper, and Mike for stealing Mark's dogs. Kate sends him the wrong way.
- C. K. Van Auker plays the mountie. Marjorie Warfield plays an art student. Lloyd Peters plays a bartender.
Scenes
- Faith sells her hair to buy Skipper's medicine.
- Dawson Kate tells Faith that Mark is already married and means to make her a prostitute.
- Faith falls asleep beside a bear in a storm. The bear leads her to a lake and a berry patch.
- Mark falls from a cliff. The next spring Faith and Jeb have a child.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Grub-Stake.webm)
