AllMovie

Produced and directed by Edgar Lewis, this silent Western melodrama was sort of a Madame X of the range. Gladys Brockwell played Jane Croft, who is bestowed the peculiar nickname of "Sage Hen" due to her unsavory reputation. Driven out of town by the Home Purity League, Jane and her young son, John (Richard Headrick), are promptly attacked by wild Indians. Little John finds his way back to town where he is adopted by the Rudds. Twenty years go by and Jane is working as a housekeeper for George Sanson (Edgar Lewis) and his daughter, Stella (Lillian Rich). In one of those coincidences typical of pulp fiction, Stella falls in love with the grown-up John (Wallace MacDonald), now a dashing cavalry officer. Their romance is rudely interrupted by gambler Craney (James Mason), who threatens to expose Jane's past. The stalwart John beats Craney to a pulp, Jane confesses her sins and is readily forgiven, and John and Stella are united in marriage. Playing John as a child, four-year-old Richard Headrick specialized in sagebrush urchins, having supported William S. Hart in both The Toll Gate (1920) and The Testing Block (1920).