''The Highbinders'' is a 1915 American
short crime film
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...
directed by
Tod Browning
Tod Browning (born Charles Albert Browning Jr.; July 12, 1880 – October 6, 1962) was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of vari ...
.
It is not known whether the film currently
survives.
Plot
As recorded in a film magazine,
Maggie, the daughter of Pat Gallagher, a brutal saloon keeper, to escape from being forced into a marriage with a bully and protégé of her father, takes refuge in a shop in
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Aust ...
that is just around the corner from her father's resort. The Chinese merchant Hop Woo, who has given her shelter, at last persuades her to marry him, resulting in a repugnant life for her. Years later finds Hop Woo the merchant selling his daughter Ah Woo into slavery. Ah Woo's brother, overhearing his father bartering with the highbinder, who is a member of the powerful
Hip-y-tong society, runs for help to Jack Donovan, who keeps a gambling hall on the border of Chinatown. The brother shoots and kills the slave trader. Hop Woo is suspected of the crime and visited with
blood atonement by the Hip-y-tong. The brother and Donovan, who loves the Chinese-American girl, rescue her from an underground passage below Chinatown, and Donovan shoots dead the highbinders. Maggie, the mother has committed suicide. Donovan sells the gambling hall and buys a ranch, where he takes his bride Ah Woo and her brother.
Cast
*
Eugene Pallette
Eugene William Pallette (July 8, 1889 – September 3, 1954) was an American actor who worked in both the silent and sound eras, performing in more than 240 productions between 1913 and 1946.
After an early career as a slender leading man, ...
as Hop Woo
*
Seena Owen as Ah Woo (as Signe Auen)
*
Billie West as Maggie Gallagher
*
Walter Long as Pat Gallagher
*
Tom Wilson as Jack Donovan
See also
*
Hip Sing Association
The Hip Sing Association or HSA (), formerly known as the Hip Sing Tong (), is a Chinese-American criminal organization/gang formed as a labor organization in New York City's Chinatown during the early 20th century (perhaps c. 1904). The Canton ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Highbinders, The
1915 films
1915 short films
American silent short films
American black-and-white films
1915 crime films
Films directed by Tod Browning
American crime films
1910s American films