A Brilliant Conflict

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

. . . came out 40 years prior to that John Wayne teaser. Back in the early days of 1956, how many movie-goers do you think actually figured for an instant that Mr. Wayne was going to gun down his niece Natalie Wood, as all the theatrical teasers implied? Here's a clue: you could count all the Americans who were THAT gullible on one hand. Hollywood legend has it that Wayne and his favorite director, John Ford, invented the "pulled punch," which the former displayed in more than 800 cinematic "fight" scenes. However, BANDIT'S WAGER proves that Ford, the kid brother of the director for this silent short, was already studying the pulled punch before Wayne (that is, Marion Mitchell Morrison) reached puberty. WAGER begins with a chick inexplicably climbing a tree. Viewers think, "Wow, we're going to see a gal fall from a treetop!" No such luck. Then she's in a car with John Ford, driving along a cliff. Cue expectations, "Wow, we're going to see a car go over a cliff!" No such luck. To make a long story shorter, it seems we're on the verge of seeing a chick getting shot, a guy getting shot, a girl getting lucky, a guy getting shot, a gal getting shot, and a guy getting lucky. Then a guy IS shot. With blanks. No such luck.

This is very much a small, family affair. Francis Ford directed and starred as the bandit, his brother John Ford (before fame) also appears. And Grace Cunard, the writer and a D. W. Griffith holdover, stars as well. For all practical purposes, these three did everything in this early Ford western.And, indeed, it is great to see the Ford brothers involved in the western genre so early on (1916), as they (especially John) are very much the ones who shaped and created the genre we know today, making such names as John Wayne big stars.Unfortunately, a search online turns up practically nothing about this film, so what you see is what you get. Maybe more appears in a biography of John Ford, but without checking it is impossible to tell. Regardless, this is a solid, short, silent film that any western fan ought to check out.