The Aryan (1916)
Western | 9 April 1916
Director:
William S. HartWriter:
C. Gardner SullivanProducer:
Thomas H. InceProduction Companies:
New York Motion Picture Corp., Thomas H. Ince FeaturesAccording to Triangle Film's two-full-page advertisement in the 15 April 1916 Moving Picture World, The Aryan was filmed "almost in its entirety on the sands of the Mojave desert in California." The September 1916 Picture-Play Magazine added that interiors were done at Inceville, Santa Ynez Canyon, on the northern edge of Santa Monica, CA. The ad mistakenly said that The Aryan was scheduled for release on 19 April 1916.
Modern sources list the actor credited as Swallow as Ernest Swallow, although contemporary sources do not list the actor's first name. Bessie Love was on loan to Thomas H. Ince Productions from D. W. Griffith.
Oscar Cooper, writing in the 8 April 1916 Motion Picture News, quoted the following inter-title as exemplifying the film's theme: "Oft written in letters of blood, deep carved in the face of destiny, that all men may read, runs the code of the Aryan race: 'Our women shall be guarded'; and a man of the white race may forget much—friends, duty, honor, but this he will not, he cannot forget."
The Aryan opened at the Triangle Knickerbocker Theatre in New York City, as per the 25 March 1916 Motography, but wasn't released nationally until 9 April, according to a schedule in the 29 April 1916 Motography. Triangle re-released The Aryan and its other William S. Hart movies in late 1917 along with the company's Douglas Fairbanks films. Hallmark Pictures Corp. reissued The Aryan again in 1920, according to the 16 October 1920 Moving Picture World.
According to the Library of Congress American ...
According to Triangle Film's two-full-page advertisement in the 15 April 1916 Moving Picture World, The Aryan was filmed "almost in its entirety on the sands of the Mojave desert in California." The September 1916 Picture-Play Magazine added that interiors were done at Inceville, Santa Ynez Canyon, on the northern edge of Santa Monica, CA. The ad mistakenly said that The Aryan was scheduled for release on 19 April 1916.
Modern sources list the actor credited as Swallow as Ernest Swallow, although contemporary sources do not list the actor's first name. Bessie Love was on loan to Thomas H. Ince Productions from D. W. Griffith.
Oscar Cooper, writing in the 8 April 1916 Motion Picture News, quoted the following inter-title as exemplifying the film's theme: "Oft written in letters of blood, deep carved in the face of destiny, that all men may read, runs the code of the Aryan race: 'Our women shall be guarded'; and a man of the white race may forget much—friends, duty, honor, but this he will not, he cannot forget."
The Aryan opened at the Triangle Knickerbocker Theatre in New York City, as per the 25 March 1916 Motography, but wasn't released nationally until 9 April, according to a schedule in the 29 April 1916 Motography. Triangle re-released The Aryan and its other William S. Hart movies in late 1917 along with the company's Douglas Fairbanks films. Hallmark Pictures Corp. reissued The Aryan again in 1920, according to the 16 October 1920 Moving Picture World.
According to the Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database, most of this film is extant. AFI viewed a Spanish language version called La Fiera Domada (The Taming of the Beast) that was forty-five minutes long; new captions were added to explain missing segments.
After years of hard labor, gold miner Steve Denton gathers up his fortune and sets out to visit his ailing mother. He is detained, however, at Ivory Wells' saloon in the town of Yellow Ridge, where a dance hall girl named Trixie not only cheats him out of his gold, but also conceals a message wired to him from his dying mother. Learning the next day that his mother is dead, Steve kills Trixie's lover and then drags the dance hall girl as his personal slave into the desert, where he assumes the iron-fisted leadership of a band of Indian and Mexican bandits. Two years later, a caravan of Mississippi farmers, lost in the desert, appeals to Steve for help, but he refuses. That night, as Steve's men head for the settlers' camp to ravish the women, one of the settlers, little Mary Jane, visits him secretly to plead their cause and express her belief that no white man would refuse to protect women in distress. Deeply moved, Steve fights off his men, guides the caravan out of the desert, and then resumes his ...
After years of hard labor, gold miner Steve Denton gathers up his fortune and sets out to visit his ailing mother. He is detained, however, at Ivory Wells' saloon in the town of Yellow Ridge, where a dance hall girl named Trixie not only cheats him out of his gold, but also conceals a message wired to him from his dying mother. Learning the next day that his mother is dead, Steve kills Trixie's lover and then drags the dance hall girl as his personal slave into the desert, where he assumes the iron-fisted leadership of a band of Indian and Mexican bandits. Two years later, a caravan of Mississippi farmers, lost in the desert, appeals to Steve for help, but he refuses. That night, as Steve's men head for the settlers' camp to ravish the women, one of the settlers, little Mary Jane, visits him secretly to plead their cause and express her belief that no white man would refuse to protect women in distress. Deeply moved, Steve fights off his men, guides the caravan out of the desert, and then resumes his wanderings.
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Offscreen Credit
Name Occurs Before Title
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