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Hobart Bosworth (center).
Photograph: Silent Era image collection.
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The Yaqui
(1916) United States of America
B&W : Five reels
Directed by Lloyd B. Carleton
Cast: Hobart Bosworth [Tambor], Golda Caldwell (Goldie Colwell) [Modesta], Dorothy Clark [Lucia], Charles H. Hickman [Señor Esteban], Jack Curtis [Martinez], Yona Landowska [Ysobel], Gretchen Lederer [Señora Esteban], Emory Johnson [Flores], Louis A. Valderna [Lieutenant Hernandez], Alfred Allen
Bluebird Photoplays, Incorporated, production; distributed by Bluebird Photoplays, Incorporated, through The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated. / From the novel The Land of the Broken Promise by Dane Coolidge. Music score selected and arranged by M. Winkler. / © 21 February 1916 by Bluebird Photoplays, Incorporated [LP7679]. Released 19 March 1916. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Col. Martinez, commander of the Mexican troops, is in partnership with Flores, a brutal slave holder, who owns large tracts in the Maguay fields of Yucatan. Flores comes to Martinez and enlists his aid to secure peons to labor in the fields. Army headquarters are in the center of the Yaqui Indians’ lands and Tambor is one of the leading spirits among the Indian tribesmen. Col. Hernandez is second in command to Col. Martinez, and both men are in love with Ysobel, daughter of Esteban, a rich land holder. In order to instigate a reason for enslaving the Yaqui Indians. Col. Martinez involves a scheme to insult Tambor’s wife. At the feast of Santa Catalina, the Yaqui assemble in the plaza before the church to hold their ceremonies. In the midst of the revelry, Martinez approaches the wife of Tambor and taking her in his arms attempts to kiss her. This action proves an incentive for trouble, which Martinez anticipated, and as the result of the ensuing trouble, Tambor was sentenced by Martinez to die. The younger and able-bodied Yaqui are declared prisoners and are exiled into slavery. Tambor is supposed to have been executed by a man who expresses such hatred towards him, that he wanted to kill Tambor himself. In reality the bullet which struck the Indian on the forehead, was only meant to stun him. Tambor falls into the open grave and his executioner fills in the dirt. Late in the evening, the man who had shot Tambor and buried him, returns to dig the Yaqui out of the grave and revives him. The slaves of Flores are loaded onto cars and sent to Yucatan, but not before Tambor had secreted himself under one of the cars. Upon arriving in Yucatan, Flores entices the wife of Tambor into his home, where in frustrating his assault upon her, stabs herself. Tambor arrives too late to prevent this deed, but gets revenge by drawing the knife from his wife’s breast and sinking it into the heart of Flores. Tambor escapes and eventually reaches his tribesmen in Santa Catalina. The suit for the hand of Ysobel progresses. Ysobel loves Lieut. Hernandez, but her parents urge her marriage to the Colonel. Lieut. Hernandez is meanwhile becoming sympathetically inclined toward the Revolutionists and means to overthrow the military rule of Martinez, and to this end the Yaquis join in revolt. The concluding scenes illustrate the sensational battles for supremacy between the Revolutionists and the forces of Martinez. The ultimate result is victory for the Yaquis; Martinez’s death at the hands of Tambor in deadly duel, and the marriage of Ysobel to Lieut. Hernandez. // Additional synopses available in AFI-F1 n. F1.5155, and in Hirschhorn-Universal p. 20.
Survival status: The film is presumed lost.
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Crime: Rape (Attempted) - Mexicans - Mexico - Native Americans - Slavery - Suicide - USA: Arizona: Tempe
Listing updated: 27 November 2023.
References: AFI-F1 n. F1.5155; Edmonds-BigU pp. 81, 83; Hirschhorn-Universal p. 20 : Website-ASFFDb; Website-IMDb.
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