The Village Blacksmith
About The Village Blacksmith
As young men, squire Ezra Brigham and blacksmith John Hammond both want the same woman. Hammond marries her, and the squire stays angry. Years later the squire's son Anson dares the blacksmith's son Johnnie to climb a tree. Johnnie falls and is crippled. Grown, Anson and the blacksmith's daughter Alice fall in love. Hammond scolds her. His other son Bill comes home from college and is hurt in a train wreck. Anson steals $840 from a church fund that Alice is holding. Alice is struck by lightning. Hammond takes Anson and the squire to church, and both repent.
Cast & crew
More about The Village Blacksmith
John Ford directed. Paul Sloane wrote it, loosely from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem 'The Village Blacksmith.' William Fox produced it. Fox released it in New York on November 2, 1922. It was eight reels, 80 minutes. Will Walling plays the blacksmith. Virginia True Boardman plays his wife. Virginia Valli plays Alice.
Themes
Making
Ford spreads the poem's blacksmith across two generations, with the squire's grudge landing on the children.
Preservation
One of the eight reels survives at the UCLA Film & Television Archive. The rest is missing, so the film is treated as lost beyond that reel. A fragment is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- David Butler plays Bill Hammond. George Hackathorne plays Johnnie. Tully Marshall plays the squire. Ralph Yearsley plays Anson. Francis Ford plays Asa Martin. Bessie Love plays Rosemary Martin.
- Child roles include Ida Mae McKenzie as young Alice, Gordon Griffith as young Bill, and Pat Moore as young Johnnie.
- The stolen church money is $840 in the Wikipedia plot. Some catalog summaries say $480.
- Only one of the eight reels is known to survive.
Scenes
- Anson dares Johnnie into the tree, and Johnnie falls.
- Anson takes $840 from the church fund Alice is holding.
- Lightning strikes Alice, and the two men are brought to church.
Influenced by
- The Village Blacksmith (poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Village Blacksmith.webm)
