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How Lone Wolf Died
(1914) United States of America
B&W : [?] Short film?
Directed by Marshall Farnum
Cast: Lester Cuneo, Hazel Henderson [Laughing Star], Barney Furey
The Selig Polyscope Company, Incorporated, production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Produced by William N. Selig. From a screen story by William E. Wing. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama: Western.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Lone Wolf is a red-handed renegade, who wantonly maims and destroys through the sheer joy of savagery. How he dies in the desert miserably vindicates the natural course of his wicked life. Lone Wolf creeps on the scene stripped to the buff, armed only with a knife. He raids the settler’s cabin, secures arms and ammunition, and then scurries away on the only horse of the place, unhappily missed by the fire of the settler’s wife. He returns her fire and kills the woman, leaving the baby motherless. The succeeding scene shows the visit of the missionary to the solitary tepee where Laughing Star and her mother are encamped. The good man has impressed the Indian girl with something of the light of the gospels, but that night he is shadowed and mutilated by Lone Wolf out of sheer deviltry. The Indian girl discovers him in the morning and learns from his dying lips the name of his assailant. Laughing Star immediately draws her knife and makes oath that she will kill the Indian, placing the blade upon her forehead and beginning an oath. The dying man raises his hand to the Bible and stops her, pointing to the injunction, “Thou shalt not kill.” The good man dies and the girl begins a relentless pursuit of the murderer across the dreary wastes of the dry desert. Lone Wolf is thrown from his horse and she finds him stunned and unconscious. She is about to plunge a knife in his heart when she remembers the injunction of the missionary and desists. She, however, takes away his arms, and herself goes to a safe distance and watches him return to consciousness. She raises her canteen and takes a drink. He, tortured by thirst, is powerless to secure the coveted water. He creeps to the water-hole and sees the poison sign of the Indian on the rock by it. He crawls painfully away, and finds another water-hole that she has stopped up with sand. Then in desperation he drags himself back to the poison spring. Daring danger, he drinks and dies in agony. Laughing Star presses her Bible to her bosom and passes on her way. The parable of the Good Samaritan had not impressed her, till she had obeyed the injunction of the dying missionary.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Death - Native Americans
Listing updated: 6 January 2025.
References: Bohn-Light p. 112 : Website-IMDb.
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