Jim Grimsby's Boy (1916)
Western, Drama | 12 November 1916
Cast:
Frank Keenan, Enid Markey, Robert McKim [ More ]Director:
Reginald BarkerWriter:
Lanier BartlettProduction Designer:
Robert BruntonProduction Company:
New York Motion Picture Corp.; Kay-BeeA date-lined "Los Angeles, June 22" item in the 1 July 1916 Billboard noted that director Reginald Barker and actor Frank Keenan began filming a new picture "this week."
According to the 8 July 1916 Motion Picture News, director Barker, assistant director Elliott Howe, cameraman Charles Kaufman, and actors Frank Keenan, Robert McKim, Enid Markey, J. P. Lockney, Leo Willis, and J. H. Noble had just returned to Culver City from Mount Baldy, in the San Gabriel Mountains in San Bernardino County, CA. "In ascending [Mt. Baldy] they took a trail that had not been traversed since the winter rain and storms, and they encountered many difficulties. One story is to the effect that the path was so steep, narrow and slippery that one burro fell off a cliff, rolling down full three hundred feet. It was not so badly injured but what it could continue the trip to the top of the mountain. At another point, the trail was filled with a boulder said to weigh more than three tons. By main strength and awkwardness the men of the triple succeeded in rolling it off the cliff....[A] cabin was built on top of the mountain where one hundred and forty-seven scenes were made for the unusual mining drama being produced from a scenario by Lanier Bartlett." The following week's Motography described Keenan's role as a "hermit of the hills" in a "heart-interest drama of the California gold field."
The 21 October 1916 Motion Picture News announced that Jim Grimsby's Boy was "the definite title selected for" the Keenan-Markey film. "This is the first Ince subject from ...
A date-lined "Los Angeles, June 22" item in the 1 July 1916 Billboard noted that director Reginald Barker and actor Frank Keenan began filming a new picture "this week."
According to the 8 July 1916 Motion Picture News, director Barker, assistant director Elliott Howe, cameraman Charles Kaufman, and actors Frank Keenan, Robert McKim, Enid Markey, J. P. Lockney, Leo Willis, and J. H. Noble had just returned to Culver City from Mount Baldy, in the San Gabriel Mountains in San Bernardino County, CA. "In ascending [Mt. Baldy] they took a trail that had not been traversed since the winter rain and storms, and they encountered many difficulties. One story is to the effect that the path was so steep, narrow and slippery that one burro fell off a cliff, rolling down full three hundred feet. It was not so badly injured but what it could continue the trip to the top of the mountain. At another point, the trail was filled with a boulder said to weigh more than three tons. By main strength and awkwardness the men of the triple succeeded in rolling it off the cliff....[A] cabin was built on top of the mountain where one hundred and forty-seven scenes were made for the unusual mining drama being produced from a scenario by Lanier Bartlett." The following week's Motography described Keenan's role as a "hermit of the hills" in a "heart-interest drama of the California gold field."
The 21 October 1916 Motion Picture News announced that Jim Grimsby's Boy was "the definite title selected for" the Keenan-Markey film. "This is the first Ince subject from the pen of Lanier Bartlett, and is spoken of as the most picturesque drama ever made at the Ince plant."
Jim Grimsby's Boy opened in New York City at the Eighty-First Street Theatre on 22 November 1916, according to the 2 December 1916 Moving Picture World. Variety called it "a compact three-reel screen gem," probably a short-hand way of saying the picture could have been improved by trimming.
The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included this film on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of February 2021.
Mountain miner Jim Grimsby's wife dies soon after childbirth, and he is so furious at her for having a baby girl that he names the infant Bill and raises her as a boy. This does not present a problem until the little tomboy enters her teens, at which point Bill wants to style her hair and wear the latest fashions. Then, she develops a crush on the new sheriff, Waldo Whittier. Appalled at the prospect of his "son" marrying Waldo, Jim decides to test the sheriff's grit, and so, believing that Waldo will be too frightened to come after him, he robs a casino in the nearby town of Goodville. Before fleeing, however, he makes a note of how much he owes each man he robbed, and leaves another note for the sheriff, daring him to pursue him into the mountains. The sheriff does pursue him, however, and, further impressing Jim, Bill pulls a rifle on Waldo to protect her father. Now certain of the sheriff's manliness, and convinced that his daughter has not forgotten how to act like a man, Jim returns the casino's money and agrees to let Bill and Waldo continue their ...
Mountain miner Jim Grimsby's wife dies soon after childbirth, and he is so furious at her for having a baby girl that he names the infant Bill and raises her as a boy. This does not present a problem until the little tomboy enters her teens, at which point Bill wants to style her hair and wear the latest fashions. Then, she develops a crush on the new sheriff, Waldo Whittier. Appalled at the prospect of his "son" marrying Waldo, Jim decides to test the sheriff's grit, and so, believing that Waldo will be too frightened to come after him, he robs a casino in the nearby town of Goodville. Before fleeing, however, he makes a note of how much he owes each man he robbed, and leaves another note for the sheriff, daring him to pursue him into the mountains. The sheriff does pursue him, however, and, further impressing Jim, Bill pulls a rifle on Waldo to protect her father. Now certain of the sheriff's manliness, and convinced that his daughter has not forgotten how to act like a man, Jim returns the casino's money and agrees to let Bill and Waldo continue their courtship.
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