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The Reformation of Jack Robbins
Also known as {The Reformation of Jack Robins}
(1911) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by [?] William F. Haddock?
Cast: Francis Ford [Jack Robbins, a gentleman bandit], Edith Storey [Mary Gray, the lady doctor], William Clifford [Bob Ford, the sheriff]
G. Méliès production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Produced by Gaston Méliès. Cinematography by [?] William Paley? / Released 27 April 1911. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama: Western.
Synopsis: [The Moving Picture World, 29 April 1911, page 964] Jack Robbins is a gentleman bandit. For months he has been hunted in vain by Bob Ford, the sheriff. Mary Gray, a young lady physician, comes west; Robbins befriends her and, not knowing him to be a bandit, she admires him. One day the sheriff gets close enough to Robbins to seriously wound him and he is in desperate straits. By accident Dr. Gray finds him and he becomes her patient. As a matter of professional honor, she refuses to reveal his whereabouts, and she nurses him back to health. Robbins in the meantime has grown to love and admire the brave, honorable little woman, and he lets her know his love. Now, down in her heart, she loves Robbins in return, for she sees the good in him; but she also realizes that he is a thief. Bidding him good-bye, she gives him a few words to think over: “Remember that no good woman can love a thief, and that you can’t build happiness on a life of crime.” Robbins does think the words over, and the man who never feared the guns of the sheriff’s posse now shrinks before his own conscience. He gives himself up to Ford, the sheriff, and is soon doing time in the penitentiary. Five years later, he is released, a reformed man. Now with self-respect, but with an aching heart, he is about to leave the west forever when the doctor hears all about it. Her heart is still in the right place and soon what threatened to be a tragedy becomes a delicate romance.
Reviews: [The New York Dramatic Mirror, 3 May 1911, page ?] Here is another fine effort to introduce something more than mere conventional melodrama in a Western film. The highwayman is reformed for love of a woman, and it is brought about in a way that impresses one as altogether possible. The woman, played by Edith Storey, is a lady doctor who comes to the mining camp, and after a while ateends the highwayman (Mr. Ford) who is wounded in escaping from the sheriff, and whom the lady doctor conceals in an old shack, preserving his secret. When he is cured he offers her his love, but she tells him that no good woman can love a thief, nor can one build happiness on a life of crime. He thinks it over to such effect that he gives himself up to the sheriff, serves five years in prison and comes out a reformed man, being then rewarded by the heart and hand of the little doctor. The part of the sheriff (Mr. Clifford) and, indeed, all other parts were excellently taken.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 24 May 2024.
References: Thompson-Star pp. 181-182, 183, 230 : ClasIm-226 p. 55 : Website-IMDb.
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