The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1913)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

D.W. Griffith

Writers:

D.W. Griffith (writer)
Henry Albert Phillips (writer)

Release Date:

28 March 1914 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Action | Western

Tagline:

Exclusive Biograph Masterpiece

Plot:

Drunken red Indians carouse in pagan revelry, whipping up their appetite for dog meat. In search of supper...

Plot Keywords:

Cavalry | Native American | Melodrama | Survival

Cast

Mae Marsh	...	Sally Cameron
Leslie Loveridge	...	A waif
Alfred Paget	...	Waifs' uncle
Robert Harron	...	The father
Lillian Gish	...	Melissa Harlow
Charles Hill Mailes	...	Ranch owner
William A. Carroll	...	The Mexican
Frank Opperman	...	Indian Chief
Henry B. Walthall	...	Indian Chief's son
Joseph McDermott	...	Waifs' guardian
Jennie Lee	...	Waifs' guardian
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lionel Barrymore
Elmer Booth
Kate Bruce	...	Settler
Harry Carey
Charles Gorman	...	Among the Indians
Dell Henderson
Elmo Lincoln	...	Cavalryman
W. Chrystie Miller	...	Settler
W.C. Robinson	...	Among the Indians
Blanche Sweet

Also Known As:

The Battle of Elderbush Gulch

Runtime:

29 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

San Fernando, California, USA

Company:

Biograph Company

Trivia:

Lillian Gish once autographed an 8mm copy of her film The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1913) for a young filmmaker named Harry McDevitt.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Stagecoach (1939)

Exciting and Realistic Battle Scenes!

It's hard to imagine that "The Battle of Elderbush Gulch", directed by the legendary D.W. Griffith, was made a way back in 1914. It is a showcase for Griffith's emerging style.

The story centers around a group of settlers called the Cameron Brothers and their families which include a young waif (Mae Marsh) sent out from the east to live with her uncles and a young wife (Lillian Gish) who has just given birth. A group of Indians tries to capture the waif's pet dogs and are driven off by the men folk. During the confrontation the Indian Chief's son (Henry B. Wathall) is killed. The Indian chief plots his revenge and launches an attack on the small community of Elderbush Gulch.

It is this attack, which is quite brutal and graphic for this or any other time, that forms the core of the picture. The Indians slaughter the towns folk, women and children alike and drive them out of town towards the Cameron's homestead. The newborn baby becomes separated from its mother and all hell breaks loose. Someone goes for help and returns in the nick of time with the calvary.

The battle scenes contain some graphic violence. For example, we see a woman being scalped alive and there is also a sequence where we see a horse being shot down. I have never seen an animal being slain so convincingly on screen. Mr.Griffith was becoming a master of staging large scale battle scenes, a talent that he would use extensively in his epic Civil War drama, "The Birth of a Nation" released the following year.

Even though it runs a scant 29 minutes, "The Battle of Elderbush Gulch" is nonetheless an exciting and historic bit of film making. See if you can spot Lionel Barrymore and Harry Carey in bit parts.