''Wildfire'' is a 1915 silent drama film produced by the

Shuberts The Shubert family was responsible for the establishment of the Broadway district, in New York City, as the hub of the theater industry in the United States. They dominated the legitimate theater and vaudeville in the first half of the 20th cen ...

and distributed by World Pictures. It is based on the 1908 Broadway play ''Wildfire'' by George V. Hobart and

George Broadhurst George Howells Broadhurst (June 3, 1866 – January 31, 1952) was an Anglo-American theatre owner/manager, director, producer and playwright. His plays were most popular from the late 1890s into the 1920s. Biography Broadhurst was born in Wal ...

. The play had starred the famous

Lillian Russell Lillian Russell (born Helen Louise Leonard; December 4, 1860 or 1861 – June 6, 1922), was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known for her beauty ...

, who, in a rare screen appearance, reprised her role here. It was remade in 1925 with

Aileen Pringle Aileen Pringle (born Aileen Bisbee; July 23, 1895 – December 16, 1989) was an American stage and film actress during the silent film era. Biography Early life Born into a prominent and wealthy San Francisco family and educated in Europe, ...

. Surviving prints are missing the third reel and the ending. Prints and/or fragments were found in the

Dawson Film Find The Dawson Film Find (DFF) was the accidental discovery in 1978 of 372 film titles preserved in 533 reels of silent-era nitrate films in the Klondike Gold Rush town of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. The reels had been buried under an abandoned hoc ...

in 1978. According to the American Film Institute catalog, this film was shot at the

Peerless Studios Peerless Pictures, originally Peerless Features, was an early film studio in the United States. Jules Brulatour was a co-founder. The Peerless studio was built in 1914 on Linwood Avenue in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The company was merged along with a ...

Plot

John Keefe, a gambler, shoots and kills Robert Barrington in an argument over a card game. Keefe steals Barrington's papers and forges a bill of sale to himself for Barrington's stable of race horses back east. The stable includes the prize filly, Wildfire. Meanwhile, Barrington's daughters, Henrietta and Myrtle, are becoming worried about their father's long absence in the West. John Garrison, the sheriff of the town in which Barrington was killed, goes East to investigate. He suspects Keefe (now called John Duffy) and begins to build a case, causing Henrietta to become suspicious. Keefe, realizing that the game is almost up, tries to get Wildfire's jockey to throw the big race, but Henrietta saves the day and Wildfire wins.

Cast

- Henrietta Barrington * Leone Morgan - Myrtle Barrington, her sister * Richard Morris - Robert W. Barrington * W. H. Powers - Ralph Woodhurst *

Lionel Barrymore Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''A Free Soul'' (1931) ...

- John Keefe, gambler * Glenn White - Sheriff John Garrison * Riley Hatch - Matt Donovan (as William Riley Hatch) * George Mack - Bud * Walter Kendig - Marty Green * James J. Gorman - Gorman * William C. Chamberlain - Walker * Ruby Rose - Betty * James Jeffrey - Chappy Raster

References

External links

* * *
lobby card
1915 films Silent American drama films American silent feature films American black-and-white films American films based on plays American horse racing films Films about gambling 1915 drama films World Film Company films Films shot at Peerless Studios Films directed by Edwin Middleton 1910s American films {{1910s-drama-film-stub