Baree, Son of Kazan on AllMovie

A typical Northwoods romance from the pen of pulp writer James Oliver Curwood, Baree, Son of Kazan had been filmed rather more robustly in 1917, by adventurous producer-director-actress Nell Shipman. In this remake, Anita Stewart inherits the role of Napeese, the Northwoods girl who nurses a trapped dog back to health, despite the constant interfering of a lecherous trapper (Jack Curtis). Baree, played by a police dog, does get a chance to show his teeth when the villain murders Napeese's father (Joe Rickson). According to at least one critic, the hound failed to impress, however. "He is no rival of Strongheart or Rin Tin Tin," the New York Times' reviewer complained, "and the way he is treated in this story by Napeese, makes one thinks he ought to have a light-blue ribbon around his neck." A major star for the Vitagraph company in the 1910s, Anita Stewart's career suffered when that studio sued her for breach of contract in 1917. She signed with Louis B. Mayer (before her Vitagraph contract had ended) and starred in mostly programmers until her retirement in 1928.