A Tragedy of the Hills (1915)
Although everyone thought Harry to be the son of Judge Marshall Tingley, he was really the child of Tom Drook, an unscrupulous outlaw, and leader of the clan of the Drooks, who had held sway in the mountains twenty years earlier. At that time, the Tingleys rose against the Drooks and all but Tom was shot. He attempted to escape by jumping from the top of the cliff into the water below, and was given up as drowned. The baby, Harty, was found by John Gray, the hermit of the hills, and was taken to Marshall Tingley, who consented to adopt him, but who kept his identity secret. At the age of twenty-two, Harry is the companion of his supposed sister, June, the daughter of Judge Tingley. She is greatly attached to him, and when Judge Tingley notes their attitude toward each other, he tells them of Harry's identity. June is embarrassed by the disclosure, and to hide her confusion, welcomes her dissolute cousin, Burr Tingley. When Harry objects and engages in a fight with Burr, the Judge interferes, and Harry, thinking the Judge is against him, because he is a Drook, leaves. Burr writes Harry a challenge to a pistol duel at a mountain plateau known as "Heirs Half-Acre." At first Harry refuses to accept the challenge, and tears the note in two, then, reconsidering, he writes an acceptance, naming John Gray, the old hermit, as his second. In the mountain cabin. Gray, the hermit, finds a stranger hiding and in him he recognizes the long-missing Tom Drook, Harry's father. The shock of the recognition proves too much for the weak heart of the old hermit and he sinks to the floor. Tom Drook finds him dead, and hard pressed by a western sheriff wanting him for murder, he disguises himself as the hermit. When Harry arrives to ask Gray to act as his second, Tom, thinking the boy the son of his enemy, agrees. Blake, the sheriff, who is following Tom, learns of a threat against the life of Judge Tingley, and secretly guards the house at night. He is seen by the Judge, who searches the lawn the next morning for signs of him. There he and June find the torn challenge, and hurry to the Half-Acre to prevent the duel. Tom Drook, planning a crafty vengeance, kills Burr Tingley, in a way to give the impression that Harry has shot him from ambush, and when June and her father reach the Half-Acre they find the boy in custody. That night the Tingleys, intent on vengeance for Burr's death, take Harry from the jail and plan a lynching at the plateau. In the cabin of the hermit Tom Drook sees his own son pass to his death, gloating in the thought that it is the son of his enemy. June and her father learn of the lynching and start out to save Harry. In the cabin Tom finds the diary of the old hermit and in it he reads proof that Harry is his own son. Horror-stricken by his act, he starts for the plateau to save him. The Tingleys place Harry against a rock, raise their guns and fire. When the smoke clears away they find the hermit, sinking to the ground, and Harry unhurt. It is Tom Drook, who has rushed in and taken the bullets intended for his son. June and her father reach the Half-Acre just as Tom breathes his last, and though Harry has lost a father, in June he has won a wife.
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Domestic
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Worldwide
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GenresDrama
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| Romaine Fielding | Director |
| Herman A. Blackman | Writer |
| Romaine Fielding | Writer |
| Siegmund Lubin | Producer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| James Cassady | |
| William W. Cohill | |
| Jack Delson | |
| Walter Law |
