The Hero Track Walker
R: Kenean Buel (?). D: George Melford, Alice Joyce, Frank Lanning. P: Kalem. USA 1911
Print: EYE
German titles

“Willy (George Melford) is a cowboy who gets fired, and then teams up with an Indian to rob a train. He rescues Myrtle (Alice Joyce), who has been chased up a tree by a cow. She takes a liking to him, which the Indian notices. He apparently isn’t crazy about the robbery scheme, and while Willy sets fire to the railroad trestle, the Indian rides over and informs Myrtle, and they rush to the scene. Myrtle throws away the dynamite just in time, and then tells everyone that Willy was the hero, and he is surprised to be rewarded. Very far-fetched plot and poor character motivation, but it is lighthearted and at least the picture is clear. Kalem manages to get a train into the film. German intertitles.”
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The Mystery of Lonely Gulch
R: Theodore Wharton. D: George Larkin. P: Pathé Frères / American Kinema. USA 1910
Print: EYE
Dutch titles

Summary (Moving Picture World synopsis)

“A film by the American company of this house which has merits, yet it can scarcely be said to come up to the quality of the pictures produced by the same house upon other subjects. There is such a strong disposition in these times to run to mining or ranching pictures that the Pathé firm has caught the infection and this is one of the films produced. The acting is good, as the acting in all Pathé films is good, but it is the same threadbare subject, with but the impersonation of an actor to afford a novelty. There is too much of this sort of thing in the present output of the various companies. Unless some novel feature is reproduced the films mean little and the many of them that have been turned out have become in a way commonplace. The situations here are perhaps somewhat novel, for actors and actresses do not as a rule travel in such a country; still, when an actress succeeds in landing what this one terms an easy mark, possibly their presence anywhere can be satisfactorily explained. Owing to the suspicions of the sheriff the chicanery of the couple is exposed, the man is arrested and the woman sent about her business. The ending is quite in keeping with the idea of punishing wickedness which generally obtained, but the methods taken to secure the money of the ranchman are open to criticism. They are rather suggestive in their application and might afford a basis upon which a weak minded person might operate.”
The Moving Picture World, November 5, 1910

More Wharton films on this site:

>>> The Bang Sun Engine (New Adventures of J. Rufus Wallingford, No. 7)

>>> From the Submerged