Man Above the Law (1918)

Genres - Drama, Western  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Hans J. Wollstein

Early silent-screen western stars Jack Richardson and Josie Sedgwick starred in this average melodrama from the Triangle film factory. The theme of the film was a favorite of the 1910s: miscegenation. Duce Chalmers (Richardson) runs a saloon in Indian country and sires a child with Indian maiden Natcha (veteran character actress Claire McDowell). All kinds of trouble breaks lose when newly arrived schoolmarm Esther Brown (Sedgwick) allows the "half-breed" child into her classroom. The hubbub convinces Chalmers to seek redemption and not only ceases selling booze to the Indians but marries Natcha. It is highly unlikely that this denouement would have passed censors a decade later.

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Keywords

bar [pub], child, class [social], Eastern-US, family, fugitive, Mexico, Native-American, schoolteacher, territory