Branding Broadway is a 1918 American silent Western film directed by and starring William S. Hart, written by C. Gardner Sullivan, and produced by Thomas H. Ince and Hart.[1]

Branding Broadway
Film poster
Directed byWilliam S. Hart
Written byC. Gardner Sullivan
Produced byThomas H. Ince
William S. Hart
StarringWilliam S. Hart
Seena Owen
Arthur Shirley
CinematographyJoseph H. August
Production
company
William S. Hart Productions
Distributed byArtcraft Pictures
Release date
  • December 1918 (1918-12)
Running time
50 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent
English intertitles

Plot

edit

A tough cowboy, Robert Sands (played by William S. Hart) is banished from an Arizona town for his drunk and disorderly comment. He moves to New York and gets a job as bodyguard and guardian to a wealthy and spoiled young man. He falls in love with a restaurant owner (played by Seena Owen) who has compromising letters from the young man Sands is charged with protecting.

Cast

edit
Actor Role
William S. Hart Robert Sands
Seena Owen Mary Lee
Arthur Shirley Larry Harrington
Andrew Robson Harrington Sr
Lew Short Dick Horn (as Lewis W. Short)
 
Film still with Seena Owen, Arthur Shirley, and William S. Hart

Reception

edit

Like many American films of the time, Branding Broadway was subject to restrictions and cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors required, in Reel 1, that four scenes of Sands and his gang shooting up town be reduced by half, and cuts of three cafe fight scenes and, in Reel 5, all but the first and last scenes of the attack on the young woman.[2]

Preservation status

edit

The film is preserved in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA for short) collection in New York.[3][4]

References

edit
  1. ^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Branding Broadway
  2. ^ "Official Cut-Outs by the Chicago Board of Censors". Exhibitors Herald. 7 (26). New York City: Exhibitors Herald Company: 42. December 21, 1918.
  3. ^ The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Branding Broadway
  4. ^ Progressive Silent Film List: Branding Broadway at silentera.com
edit