The Last Drop of Water
About The Last Drop of Water
Jim and John both court Mary. She marries John, the drinker, and the couple joins a wagon train west, with Jim along. On the desert, Native fighters pin the wagons. The water runs out. Both men go for more. Jim has already given his last drink to an old man. John, finding Jim dying of thirst, gives him the last drop and dies in the sand. Jim reaches water. Troops break the siege.
Cast & crew
More about The Last Drop of Water
D. W. Griffith directed and produced. Stanner E. V. Taylor wrote the scenario from a story credited to Bret Harte. G. W. Bitzer photographed it. General Film released it on July 27, 1911, and rereleased it in 1915. It is one reel.
Themes
Background
A one-reel Biograph Western released in the summer of 1911, built as a wagon-train siege rather than a feature.
Making
Griffith shot the desert crossing in the San Fernando desert and at Lookout Mountain, California, with the wagons circled as a stockade.
Look
G. W. Bitzer photographed the circled wagons and the desert walk for water.
Preservation
Three prints are known to survive.
Notes
- Blanche Sweet plays Mary, Charles West plays Jim, and Joseph Graybill plays John.
- Robert Harron, Alfred Paget, Jeanie MacPherson, Dell Henderson, and W. Chrystie Miller are in the wagon train.
- A Moving Picture World note ties the last drink to the story of Sir Philip Sidney giving his water to another soldier.
- Three prints are known to survive.
Scenes
- The wagons form a stockade while the water gives out.
- John hands Jim the last drop and then falls in the sand.
Influenced by
- Bret Harte story material
- The anecdote of Sir Philip Sidney's last drink
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons
