''The Squaw Man'' is a 1931 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

. It was his third time filming the same play but the first in sound. It stars

Warner Baxter Warner Leroy Baxter (March 29, 1889 – May 7, 1951) was an American film actor from the 1910s to the 1940s. Baxter is known for his role as the Cisco Kid in the 1928 film ''In Old Arizona'', for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at ...

in the leading role.

Plot

A British army officer, Captain James Wingate, is left disgraced when he takes the blame for his cousin Henry's misappropriation of the regiment's charitable fund. He is also in love with Henry's wife, Diana, who loves him in return and knows he is innocent and her husband guilty. They both agree he must leave the country to save her marriage and their honour. He heads to the

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

of the United States, taking over a ranch in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

. A local bootlegger, Cash Hawkins, wants James' land as a smuggling route from Mexico, and also tries to force a beautiful Indian woman, Naturich, to his will. James rescues her, earning her gratitude and love; when Cash Hawkins openly comes in to kill him, James does not resist because he is pining over a picture of Lady Diana and wants to die. Naturich shoots Cash dead. The sheriff and his friends are for Cash and against James, but cannot pin Cash's "murder" on James; Naturich goes unsuspected. She follows James home and saves him from two of Cash's friends who shoot and wound him; in gratitude, he lets her stay with him. We later learn that he marries her and they have a son, Hal. Years later, Henry, who is being unfaithful to Diana, is killed in a hunting accident, and confesses to the theft as he dies. Sir John Applegate, Diana's friend, finds out James' whereabouts and arrives at the ranch with her, on Hal's fifth birthday. The little boy is glorying in the model railroad James' ranch hands have given him and being lukewarm about his mother's handmade wooden horse. James longs desperately to return to England, and is agonized by what might have been with Diana; however, he remains true to Naturich and introduces her as his wife to the surprised guests. Later, Sir John convinces James to let him take Hal back with him to England, where the boy will be educated in the finest schools and become worthy to inherit the earldom. When her son is taken against her wishes, a grieving Naturich goes to the hills to pray; as Sir John and Diana prepare to leave with Hal, the sheriff and his friends turn up to arrest or shoot Naturich, havingafter more than five years of top notch detective workfound her purse at Cash's death scene and realizing that she killed him. Naturich sneaks back in time to see her son depart; she goes into the boy's room, and, as James has a standoff at gunpoint with the sheriff on the front steps, she shoots herself, holding the wooden horse she made for Hal. All hear the shot and rush in, and Naturich dies in James's arms.

Cast

Production and release

DeMille's two previous versions of the story were released in 1914 and in 1918. DeMille was keen to remake his earlier successes and was the driving force behind the project, at a time when a cycle of big-budget Western films ''

In Old Arizona ''In Old Arizona'' is a 1928 American pre-Code Western film directed by Raoul Walsh and Irving Cummings, nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film, which was based on the character of the Cisco Kid in the 1907 story " ...

'', ''

Billy the Kid Billy the Kid (born Henry McCarty; September 17 or November 23, 1859July 14, 1881), also known by the pseudonym William H. Bonney, was an outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West, who killed eight men before he was shot and killed at th ...

'' and ''

The Big Trail ''The Big Trail'' is a 1930 American pre-Code Western early widescreen film shot on location across the American West starring 23-year-old John Wayne in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh. In 2006, the United States Libra ...

'' were being released. The film rights proved difficult and expensive to acquire, as MGM had to negotiate with both Paramount Pictures and

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

. Many of the scenes were shot on location in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. As the cost of the film escalated, MGM executive

Nicholas Schenck Nicholas M. Schenck (14 November 1880, Rybinsk, Russia – 4 March 1969, Florida) was a Russian-American film studio executive and businessman. Biography Early life One of seven children, Schenck was born to a Jewish household in Rybinsk, ...

tried to abandon the production, but he was persuaded that this would be equally costly to do and the film was finished as planned. It ultimately cost over $722,000 to make and lost nearly $150,000 in its initial release.Birchard p.248 In spite of its financial losses, and troubled production, the film was well-regarded by critics. This was the last film on DeMille's contract with MGM before he returned to Paramount Pictures. His next work was the enormously successful 1932 film '' The Sign of the Cross'' which kick-started his career again.

References

Bibliography

* Birchard, Robert S. ''Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood''. University Press of Kentucky, 2004.

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Squaw Man, The (1931 Film) 1931 films Films directed by Cecil B. DeMille 1931 Western (genre) films American black-and-white films Films set in England American films based on plays Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Remakes of American films Sound film remakes of silent films American Western (genre) films Films scored by Herbert Stothart 1931 drama films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films