Main Cast: William S. Hart, Barbara Bedford, Lucien Littlefield, Gordon Russell, Richard R. Neill
Release Year: 1925
Country: US
Run Time: 114 minutes
Plot
Tumbleweeds marked silent-screen cowboy legend William S. Hart's return to the screen after a long absence, and it was also his swan song, as Hart's brand of individualism and moody morality gave way to the more action-oriented films of Tom Mix and the epic westerns of The Covered Wagon and The Iron Horse. Tumbleweeds takes place in 1899 when the Cherokee Strip was opened up to homesteaders. When that happens, Don Carver (Hart), the range boss for the Box K Ranch, finds himself out of work. Carver falls in love with Molly Lassiter (Barbara Bedford), the daughter of one of the families of homesteaders who have gathered in Caldwell, Kansas, preparing for the big land rush. Carver joins up with the homesteaders in the hope that he can get a piece of land and claim the site of the Box K ranchhouse, which controls the water for the strip. But he is falsely arrested and has to break free to take part in the land rush. Although King Baggot is credited as the sole director, Hart co-directed the film. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
This is William S. Hart's final contribution to the Western genre he had helped define a decade earlier. Hart plays a "tumbleweed," one of the last of the roaming cowboys whose way of life is about to disappear with the arrival of empire building settlers. It is mere days before the legendary Oklahoma land rush, when the fertile Cherokee Strip will be taken over by farmers and shop keepers. Later, due to his infatuation with lovely Barbara Bedford, Hart is more than ready to stake his claim, both for the land and the lady. Despite the potential inherit in the material, Tumbleweeds is not the epic story telling of empire building Hart may have envisioned. Nevertheless, Hart's version of the land rush, some of it filmed at the Universal back lot, remains second to none in scope and excitement and certainly influenced the many versions to come, including the award-winning Cimarron. Since the director, King Baggot, never did anything like this, before or after, the credit most likely belongs with Hart himself. As always, Hart goes for realism in both setting and characterization. His aging cowpoke is no one-dimensional hero and is not above breaking the law to get what he wants. The supporting cast is equally well appointed, with Lucien Littlefield solid as the comic sidekick, Richard R. Neill and J. Gordon Russell properly menacing as the villainous "sooners," and Barbara Bedford, mature and beautiful, as the heroine. Tumbleweeds failed to deliver the hoped-for business and Hart, distressed at having to compete with showmen like Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson, chose to retire. He was back on the screen in a filmed prologue to the 1939 re-release of Tumbleweeds, however, proving perhaps only that talkies were not this rather bombastic Victorian stage actor's true métier. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Jack Murphy - Bart Lassiter; Lillian Leighton - Mrs. Riley; Gertrude Claire - Old Woman; T.E. Duncan - Major of Cavalry; Fred Gamble - Hotel Proprietor; James Gordon - Joe Hinman; George F. Marion - Old Man; Turner Savage - Riley Boy; King Baggot; Monte Collins - Hick; Richard R. Niell
Tumbleweeds is a 1925 Western film starring and produced by William S. Hart. It depicts the Cherokee Stripland rush of 1893. The film is said to have influenced the Oscar-winning 1931 Western Cimarron, which also depicts the land rush.[1] The 1939 Astor Pictures' re-release of Tumbleweeds includes an 8-minute introduction by the then 75 year old Hart as he talks about his career and the "glories of the old west."[1]Tumbleweeds was Hart's last movie.[1]
In the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma during the 1880's and early 1890's, the government lands that were leased to cattlemen were opened to settlement by homesteaders. To allow a fair chance for everyone, the prospective homesteaders were required to register and registrants were prohibited from entering into the Strip before the appointed time. Those who tried to get there beforehand were called "Sooners". Hence the nickname of Oklahoma is the Sooner State. When a cannon shot signaled the start of the land rush, a hundred thousand men and women tried to stake their claims.
Plot
Set in Caldwell, Kansas on the Kansas-Oklahoma border, the movie features cowboy Don Carver (Hart) as a "tumbleweed" (i.e., a drifter) who decides to settle down after falling in love with Molly Lassiter (Barbara Bedford). Carver decides to get in on the Cherokee Strip land rush but when he's arrested and parted from his new love, he's in danger of missing the big race. Lucien Littlefield plays a strong supporting role in the movie as Hart's comic sidekick and best friend.[1]
Reviews
Contemporary Reviews
Reviews at the time of its release praised Tumbleweeds as good entertainment. The New York Times reviewed the film in 1925 and wrote that Hart's performance emphasized "righteousness, his mental dexterity and physical prowess" in the role of Carver.[2] "Although much of Don Carver's accuracy in shooting and his turning up at the psychological moment is nothing but the camera's good work, it should be noted that Mr. Carver, impersonated by Mr. Hart, frequently won applause from the audience yesterday afternoon."[2]
A 1926 review of Tumbleweeds in Photoplay Magazine says "Bill Hart returns to the screen in a story laid in the time when the Indian territory was turned over to the homesteaders. The scene in which the prospective land owners, waiting for the cannon's boom which would send them racing in to stake their claims, furnished a brand new thrill...It is good entertainment."[3]
Modern Reviews
Modern reviews of Tumbleweeds have placed the movie as the high point of Hart's career and as a seminal film of the silent era that was unique for its era in its depiction of Native Americans and African Americans. Gary Johnson in Images Journal said that although Tumbleweeds was only a mild box-office success, it is arguably Hart's finest film.[1] "The movie's most impressive sequence remains the land rush", wrote Johnson.[1] "All manners of vehicles -- covered wagons, surreys, stagecoaches, even a large-wheeled bicycle -- bounce over the prairie in the mad rush to claim land. Other films would attempt to recreate the Oklahoma hand rush -- such as Cimarron, which won the Best Picture Academy Award in 1931 -- but Tumbleweeds remains the best example."[1]
John Nesbitt wrote that Hart went out on a high note with Tumbleweeds.[4] "Tumbleweeds stands up remarkably well, and most film devotees will find it among the more interesting and entertaining melodramas of the silent era", wrote Nesbitt.[4] Tammy Stone wrote that Hart was to Westerns what Chaplin was to comedy and that Hart managed to "both stay in the game and go out with a bang" in his last film Tumbleweeds.[5] Hart's "last film is widely considered to be his masterpiece, and also one of the seminal films of the silent era", she added.[5] Michael W. Phillips Jr. wrote in 2007 that the movie was unique in movies of the era because it included Native Americans who weren't faceless villains but Hart's friends and included African Americans among the boomers of 1889.[6] "With Hart's retirement from film, another important phase ended: serious, mature Westerns disappeared, and it would take another 25 years for Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann, and John Ford to use the Western for more grown-up ends than simple cowboys and Indians."[6]
Hart's last movie
Tumbleweeds was Hart's last movie.[4] In 1939, Astor Pictures re-released the film and provided an eight-minute introduction that would be Hart's last appearance on film.[4] In this introduction, he states:
My friends, I loved the art of making motion pictures. It is as the breath of life to me ... the rush of the wind that cuts your face, the pounding hooves of the pursuing posse, and then the clouds of dust! Through the cloud of dust comes the faint voice of the director, "Now, Bill, OK! Glad you made it! Great stuff, Bill, great stuff! And, say, Bill! Give old Fritz a pat on the nose for me, will ya?" The saddle is empty, the boys up ahead are calling, they're waiting for you and me to help drive this last great round-up into eternity."[4]
Hart retired to his ranch in Newhall, California and although producers continued to offer him roles in sound films, he refused to return to the screen.[7]
Revival
Silent Film organist Dennis James at a Ponca Theatre screening of the film.
On September 14, 2007, Dennis James, a silent film musician, performed a score to Tumbleweeds in a live performance at the Poncan Theater in Ponca City, Oklahoma as a special commission as part of a celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of Oklahoma statehood.[8]
Home media
On August 25, 2009, Alpha Video released the Astor Pictures' 1939 version of Tumbleweeds on Region 0 DVD.[9]
