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William S. Hart (center, seated at table).
Photograph: Silent Era image collection.
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Between Men
(1915) United States of America
B&W : Five reels
Directed by William S. Hart
Cast: William S. Hart [Bob White], Enid Markey [Lina Hampdon], House Peters [Gregg Lewiston], J. Barney Sherry [Ashley Hampdon], Bert Wesner [John Worth], Robert McKim [Rankin]
New York Motion Picture Corporation production; distributed by Triangle Film Corporation [Kay-Bee]. / Produced by Thomas H. Ince. Scenario by C. Gardner Sullivan, [?] from a screen story by C. Gardner Sullivan and William S. Hart? Production supervised by Thomas H. Ince. Cinematography by Joe August (Joseph H. August). Music score composed and arranged by Joseph E. Nurnberger. Musical accompaniment by Victor Schertzinger and Wedgewood Nowell. / © 15 December 1915 by Triangle Film Corporation [LU7290]. © 2 January 1916 by Triangle Film Corporation [LP10714]. Premiered 28 November 1915 in New York, New York. General release, 2 January 1916. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The production was shot from 3 July through 3 September 1915. Production cost $19,377.89. The film was rereleased in the USA by Triangle Distributing Corporation on 6 January 1918.
Drama: Western.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Ashley Hampdon, a Wall Street financier, has a daughter named Lina. Gregg Lewiston wants to marry the girl. The father tells him that the girl can please herself. As he does not seem to progress in his love-making, Lewiston puts through a scheme to ruin Hampdon in the market, so that the father will bring pressure to bear on his daughter to marry the suitor as he has lots of money. Hampdon is distracted by his losses. While aimlessly looking over his papers Hampdon comes across a little note signed by a western mining man, Bot White. It is an offer from White to assist Hampdon at any time and in any place, physically or financially. Hampdon had once befriended White and as he would not take anything else in return, White gave him the written offer. Hampdon sends a message to White to come to New York at once. When White appears, Hampdon tells him of his suspicion, that Lewiston injured him through an accomplice who had given him a wrong tip. Lina takes offense at a conversation she hears between Lewiston and White and tells White that she objects to him. He is put up at a club by Hampdon. There Lewiston sends Rankin (the same broker that he used to ruin Lewiston) to White with a tip on the market. White sends for detectives. They connect White's room with that of Lewiston’s on a floor above by means of a wire and with the aid of a Dictaphone they overhear Lewiston and Rankin concocting a scheme to ruin White as a friend of Lewiston and a possible rival to Lina’s hand. White and Hampdon use this information to make a fortune much to the discomfiture of Lewiston. As his treachery is now revealed, Lewiston is unable to win Lina. He goes to the club and insults White by saying in a loud tone of voice that this is the first case he has known of a man trying to buy a girl. White wants him to fight, but Lewiston excuses himself by remarking that it is a gentlemen’s club. Finally Lewiston strikes White for calling him a coward, but spectators separate the men. Lewiston goes to his uptown home and White follows him. There is a fight and White gets the best of it till Lewiston hits White over the head with a bronze vase. Just then John Worth, who is a friend of White’s and is half crazed from losses due to the villainy of Lewiston, appears at a window and shoots Lewiston in the arm. White having accomplished his mission, goes to bid his friend, Ashley Hampdon, good-bye. Lina has come to admire White for his loyalty to her father and for his efficiency. He does not seem to understand the change in her and bids her farewell. She, however, gets her father to take her on the same train on which White goes. They meet on the platform of the observation car where the misunderstanding is cleared. // Additional synopses available in AFI-F1 n. F1.0311, and in Koszarski-Hart p. 37.
Survival status: Prints exist in the Library of Congress film archive; in the George Eastman Museum film archive; and in the Museum of Modern Art film archive.
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 5 December 2022.
References: AFI-F1 n. F1.0311; Koszarski-Hart pp. xviii, 37-38.
Home video: DVD.
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