Salomy Jane (1914 film)
| Salomy Jane | |
|---|---|
| Directed by |
William Nigh Lucius Henderson |
| Produced by | Alexander E. Beyfuss |
| Written by | Paul Armstrong (play & screenplay) Bret Harte (novella) |
| Starring |
Beatriz Michelena House Peters |
| Cinematography | Arthur A. Cadwell Arthur Powelson |
| Distributed by | Alco Film Corporation |
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Release date
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Running time
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approximately one hour (six reels) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
Salomy Jane is a 1914 American Western feature film based on Bret Harte's 1898 novella of the same name. It is the only known surviving complete work of silent film era actress Beatriz Michelena and the California Motion Picture Corporation.
Rough-and-tumble Gold Rush-era California: a woman (Salomy Jane) is saved from a ruffian (Red Pete) by a heroic stranger (Jack Dart), the latter saved from a lynching when falsely accused of a crime.
Salomy Jane was the debut California Motion Picture Corporation feature as well as screen appearance by stage actress and singer Beatriz Michelena. George E. Middleton saw in his Latina wife a competitor to Mary Pickford as a premier screen star, each production intended to be Michelena's vehicle to success. Despite being well received by the public it did not return a profit for the national distributor, Alco Film. The subsequent productions being commercial failures, did not preclude Michelena demanding star-treatment perquisites that proved too much for the studio. The duo left California Motion Picture forming Beatriz Michelena Features, producing Just Squaw (1919) and The Flame of Hellgate (1920). Middleton and Michelena divorced in the 1920s.
Salomy Jane includes a scene in which actor Jack Holt rides a horse to the edge of a steep embankment then jumps off tumbling more than a hundred feet down into the Russian River. The stunt netted him a bit part as a saloon patron. This role was long cited as his debut appearance in film but he had been taking bit parts during the preceding year.
All California Motion Picture Corporation and Beatrice Michelena Studio films were believed lost due to a 1931 studio fire in San Rafael, California caused by a child's firecracker prank that destroyed the vault in which the films were stored. However, a Salomy Jane (1914) print was found in Australia in 1996, and has been preserved by the Library of Congress. New 35mm prints began limited circulation in 2008. The restoration was part of a DVD released (2011) by the National Film Preservation Foundation in the anthology Treasures 5: The West 1898–1938.
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