The Law of the Range
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Law of the Range |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1928 |
| length | 60 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | William Nigh |
| script | E. Richard Schayer |
| production | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| music | William ax |
| camera | Clyde DeVinna |
| cut | Dan Sharits |
| occupation | |
| |
The Law of the Range is a 1928 American silent film starring Tim McCoy and Joan Crawford . It was the second collaboration between the two actors after Winners of the Wilderness last year.
action
Two brothers are separated at birth. While one, Jim Lockhart, becomes a good person who protects the poor, the other chooses the dark side of the force under the name Solitaire Kid. Both love Betty Dallas, who is kidnapped several times in the course of the plot by one of the brothers and freed by the other. In the end, the two siblings recognize each other and the Solitaire Kid sacrifices his life for the love for Betty.
background
Joan Crawford had been with MGM since 1925 and quickly rose to become a popular actress. However, she had not yet found a fixed type of role for herself and so she alternated between main and supporting roles in a wide variety of genres. Since mid-1927 she was firmly established as the leading lady alongside the studio's biggest male stars, with John Gilbert in Twelve Miles Out , Lon Chaney in The Unknown and William Haines in Spring Fever .
However, her rapid rise made the actress reckless and she overestimated her actual power in the studio when she complained directly to Irving Thalberg about Norma Shearer's preference in late 1927 . Crawford demanded star roles for himself and a higher fee. Thalberg reprimanded the actress and forced her to take on the supporting role in a western despite her pulling power at the box office and her already relatively large fan base . With this targeted punishment, Joan Crawford should be made clear that only Thalberg would have to decide on her rise in the end. Things turned differently, however, and in mid-1928 Crawford finally managed to get her name from the title on her own through her appearance on Our Dancing Daughters . Crawford had already played alongside Tim McCoy in Winners of the Wilderness the previous year . Westerns were the bread-and-butter business for many studios because on the one hand they were extremely inexpensive and quickly turned off, but on the other hand they produced a steady profit. Popular cowboy stars like Tom Mix and William S. Hart regularly appeared in the list of the 20 best-selling stars. MGM tried to make Tim McCoy an established name in the late 1920s, but with the advent of talkies , those responsible decided not to pursue the genre any further.
In retrospect, Joan Crawford was not particularly impressed with her performance and the film itself:
"Range" was Tim McCoy's film - I just went through it, but in a respectful way, I guess. "
Theatrical release
At just $ 52,000 to produce, it was a very inexpensive film by MGM standards. However, the budget was well above the expenditure for the westerns of the other studios. With a sum of 139,000 US dollars, it brought in an above-average value for the genre in the USA. With foreign revenues of US $ 102,000 and a cumulative total result of US $ 241,000, the studio was able to realize a profit of US $ 87,000 in the end.
Reviews
Photoplay found warm words for Joan Crawford.
"Joan Crawford as a dear, homely girl triggers the protective instinct in both the good and the bad."
literature
- Roy Newquist (Ed.): Conversations with Joan Crawford . Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ 1980, ISBN 0-8065-0720-9 .
- Lawrence J. Quirk : The Complete Films of Joan Crawford . Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ 1988, ISBN 0-8065-1078-1 .
- Lawrence J. Quirk, William Schoell: Joan Crawford. The Essential Biography . University Press, Lexington, KY. 2002, ISBN 0-8131-2254-6 .
- Alexander Walker: Joan Crawford. The Ultimate Star . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1983, ISBN 0-297-78216-9 .