The End of the Game on AllMovie

Now completely forgotten, J. Warren Kerrigan was once a close competitor to Broncho Billy Anderson, widely regarded as the first true Western star. While Anderson founded his own company, Essanay, to produce Westerns, Kerrigan toiled for the American Film Manufacturing Company of Santa Barbara, CA. A former male model, Kerrigan's vogue lasted through the mid-1910s, but his career was on the wane when he filmed the prophetically titled The End of the Game for independent producer W.W. Hodkinson. Kerrigan plays a Southern gentleman heading West to seek his fortune in the California gold fields. Once there, he falls for a girl (Lois Wilson), whose brother is murdered. The hero, who has toughened up considerably during the long trek West, chases down the killer, an evil saloon keeper (Jack Richardson). J. Warren Kerrigan was a bit too delicate to remain a top action star, and it came as a complete surprise when director James Cruze chose him for the lead in the quintessential wagon-trail epic, The Covered Wagon (1923), which re-teamed him with Lois Wilson. The success of that film owed more to eye-opening shots of the wagon train itself than Kerrigan's performance, and he retired from the screen following yet another blockbuster, Captain Blood (1924).