I watched this film on a Friday. It was on VHS that derived from the paper tape collection in the Library of Congress so it's not a crystal-clear movie - a blurb included in the box said the film featured Al Jennings, a real bank robber and was produced by the Oklahoma Mutoscene Company. I spent the following weekend researching these questions: - Why film in Cache, Oklahoma? - What is the "Wichita National Forest and Game Preserve (one scene in the movie shows riders passing under this sign)? - What's the story on the "Featured player's" in this movie? - What was the Oklahoma Mutoscene Company?
I think the story of this movie and it's colorful side stories could be turned into an interesting historical article. Anyone want to try? Here is some interesting data with which to work:
Cache, Oklahoma is a small town just west of Lawton. It is southwest of Fort Sill, which was established in Comanche country in 1869. The 10th Calvary "Buffalo Soldiers" were later stationed there. A large, about 60,000 acres, wilderness area called the Wachita Mountains lies a few miles to the north. There are legends of lost mines and cached treasures in these hills. Most of these legends can be ignored. Quahadi Comanches, under their chief Quanah Parker surrendered at Fort Sill, Indian Territory, on June 2, 1875 ending the Indian Wars in this area. Parker settled into a huge house in Cache. His mother was a white woman who had been kidnapped by the Comanche. All the wood-frame buildings in this film burned to the ground in 1911, three years after being filmed, and were replaced by brick or concrete buildings.
The Wichita National Forest & Game Preserve was established in 1905 by President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1907, fearing their extinction, several societies organized for 15 buffalo to be transported by rail to Cache and carried, in crates, 13 miles to the wildlife preserve where they were released. Quanah Parker was among the many notables who came to the railroad station. Roosevelt visited Cache this same year and was a guest of Parker staying at his house. While in Cache, Roosevelt watched a "wolf hunt". Impressed by the event, Roosevelt later contracted a film crew to film a reenactment of the hunt. See IMDb "Wolf Hunt" (1908)
Bennie Kent was an Oklahoma still photographer. In 1904, Edison sent a film crew to Indian Country to film a movie. See IMDb "Brush Between Cownoys and Indians" (1904). Kent filled in for the camera operator. He then went on to form the Oklahoma Natural Mutoscene Company with Bill Tilghman and others. They filmed the wolf hunt film and this one.
Al J. Jennings may have been a criminal but was not in the league of the Daltons or the James Brothers. In 1907, he received a full pardon from President Roosevelt who believed he had been framed for at least some of the crimes. He had a film career into the 1930s.
I believe this film is worth a quality restoration. Maybe the Oklahoma film preservation people could consider that. Besides the insertion of explanatory inter-titles there are several scenes that need to be looked at for modification. Remember that this print came from paper tape and the scenes might not be on that tape in the sequence that they were actually shown to the public.
Scene - Cache: A man and woman seem to be doing some kind of transaction in the bank doorway. A man leaves the bank and the camera follows him as he rides out of view allowing us to see the main street on both sides At the far end of the street a stagecoach sits with mules in harness unattended. The sidewalk across from the bank is lined with about 50 men women and children who are probably waiting to see the bank robbery re-enactment. The adult townspeople will probably be extras in the final scene of the movie (the stagecoach and people viewed were probably not intended to be in the final cut unless an inter-tile explained they were gathered to watch a parade or something).
The stagecoach pulls up in front of the bank. Something is taken into the bank as the six bank robbers strike. Gunfire erupts and one bandit is killed another fatally wounded. The bandits flee with the money and with the dying man that they later dump in a stream. A posse forms and pursues almost immediately. As the movie progresses we realize that the many white shirted men that we see in town are mostly lawmen.
Scene - A lone building somewhere: In this incomprehensible scene, the original six bandits arrive at a building. But we know that two are already dead! They load up a flatbed wagon with their gear that was lying on the ground next to the building. The wagon drives off followed by the gang-of-six who all wave their hats at the camera as they leave. A pack of dogs follows the horses. Then the camera scans to show a white-shirted man on a horse concealed in the brush nearby. This scene was obviously intended to be somewhere else in the scenario. My guess is that it is a beginning scene. The gang are returning from a previous robbery success and are congratulating themselves. The observer is a lawman who will alert the town of Cache to the gang's proximity; which is the reason so many lawmen were in town and could react quickly. One of the principal players, Heck Thomas, was known for his criminal tracking prowess.
One final thought: That girl is some horseback rider. I wonder if she is one of Quanah Parker's daughters.
I think the story of this movie and it's colorful side stories could be turned into an interesting historical article. Anyone want to try? Here is some interesting data with which to work:
Cache, Oklahoma is a small town just west of Lawton. It is southwest of Fort Sill, which was established in Comanche country in 1869. The 10th Calvary "Buffalo Soldiers" were later stationed there. A large, about 60,000 acres, wilderness area called the Wachita Mountains lies a few miles to the north. There are legends of lost mines and cached treasures in these hills. Most of these legends can be ignored. Quahadi Comanches, under their chief Quanah Parker surrendered at Fort Sill, Indian Territory, on June 2, 1875 ending the Indian Wars in this area. Parker settled into a huge house in Cache. His mother was a white woman who had been kidnapped by the Comanche. All the wood-frame buildings in this film burned to the ground in 1911, three years after being filmed, and were replaced by brick or concrete buildings.
The Wichita National Forest & Game Preserve was established in 1905 by President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1907, fearing their extinction, several societies organized for 15 buffalo to be transported by rail to Cache and carried, in crates, 13 miles to the wildlife preserve where they were released. Quanah Parker was among the many notables who came to the railroad station. Roosevelt visited Cache this same year and was a guest of Parker staying at his house. While in Cache, Roosevelt watched a "wolf hunt". Impressed by the event, Roosevelt later contracted a film crew to film a reenactment of the hunt. See IMDb "Wolf Hunt" (1908)
Bennie Kent was an Oklahoma still photographer. In 1904, Edison sent a film crew to Indian Country to film a movie. See IMDb "Brush Between Cownoys and Indians" (1904). Kent filled in for the camera operator. He then went on to form the Oklahoma Natural Mutoscene Company with Bill Tilghman and others. They filmed the wolf hunt film and this one.
Al J. Jennings may have been a criminal but was not in the league of the Daltons or the James Brothers. In 1907, he received a full pardon from President Roosevelt who believed he had been framed for at least some of the crimes. He had a film career into the 1930s.
I believe this film is worth a quality restoration. Maybe the Oklahoma film preservation people could consider that. Besides the insertion of explanatory inter-titles there are several scenes that need to be looked at for modification. Remember that this print came from paper tape and the scenes might not be on that tape in the sequence that they were actually shown to the public.
Scene - Cache: A man and woman seem to be doing some kind of transaction in the bank doorway. A man leaves the bank and the camera follows him as he rides out of view allowing us to see the main street on both sides At the far end of the street a stagecoach sits with mules in harness unattended. The sidewalk across from the bank is lined with about 50 men women and children who are probably waiting to see the bank robbery re-enactment. The adult townspeople will probably be extras in the final scene of the movie (the stagecoach and people viewed were probably not intended to be in the final cut unless an inter-tile explained they were gathered to watch a parade or something).
The stagecoach pulls up in front of the bank. Something is taken into the bank as the six bank robbers strike. Gunfire erupts and one bandit is killed another fatally wounded. The bandits flee with the money and with the dying man that they later dump in a stream. A posse forms and pursues almost immediately. As the movie progresses we realize that the many white shirted men that we see in town are mostly lawmen.
Scene - A lone building somewhere: In this incomprehensible scene, the original six bandits arrive at a building. But we know that two are already dead! They load up a flatbed wagon with their gear that was lying on the ground next to the building. The wagon drives off followed by the gang-of-six who all wave their hats at the camera as they leave. A pack of dogs follows the horses. Then the camera scans to show a white-shirted man on a horse concealed in the brush nearby. This scene was obviously intended to be somewhere else in the scenario. My guess is that it is a beginning scene. The gang are returning from a previous robbery success and are congratulating themselves. The observer is a lawman who will alert the town of Cache to the gang's proximity; which is the reason so many lawmen were in town and could react quickly. One of the principal players, Heck Thomas, was known for his criminal tracking prowess.
One final thought: That girl is some horseback rider. I wonder if she is one of Quanah Parker's daughters.