Search - William S. Hart Silent Classics: Silent Man (1917) / Blue Blazes Rawden (1918) on DVD

The "Good Bad Man" rides again!!!

Diane Byrnes | 07/08/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

""The Silent Man" is Bill Hart at his best. He created the persona of

the "good bad man" and at the time it was new and exciting. Reviewers

at the time couldn't find fault with any of his films, even the ones

that were not quite up to the mark ("Blue Blazes Rawden" was not a great

movie - it was not set in the West but in the North country, where Hart

played a wild lumber-jack, finally redeemed through the kindness of the

mother of the man he killed).

"The Silent Man" was more like it. The beautiful ornate titles and the

wonderful Western scenery make this a great introduction to William S.

Hart. He plays "Silent" Bill Marr, who discovers gold but then has his

claim stolen by "Handsome" Jack Pressley (Robert McKim was a staple of

Hart's westerns. Throw in a pretty girl (Vola Vale was considered one of

the great beauties of the day), a hero worshipping kid brother and a

priest that is building a new church and you have a typical Hart Western.

I would highly recommend it.

"

Long Overdue Hart

M | N.Y. | 06/24/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This DVD release contains 2 of Hart's films -One as a lumberjack and the other as his usual cowboy character. Each film runs just under one hour and both are basically fair films- nothing spectacular. The print quality for each film are quite good with suitable piano score backing. It's about time some of William S. Harts films became available on DVD rather than being locked up in some film archives around the world. Thanks Alpha video for this release , hopefully more will follow soon."