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The Ranchman’s Debt of Honor
(1911) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by [?] Gaston Méliès and/or Robert Goodman?
Cast: Henry Stanley [Jim, the ranchman], Mildred Bracken [Mary, the ranchman’s daughter], William Clifford [Pete, Mary’s sweetheart], Francis Ford [Frank Hawley, the gambler]
G. Méliès production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Produced by Gaston Méliès. / Released 28 December 1911. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama: Western.
Synopsis: [From Méliès promotional materials] Frank Hawley, blackguard and professional gambler, entices “Jim the Ranchman” into a game of poker, where, be cheating, he gets all Jim’s money and his pledge for a debt. The gambler then falls in love with Jim’s daughter, who, however, spurns his affections for those of a cowboy. Hawley plots to steal Jim’s stock of horses, preventing his paying the “debt of honor,” and thus forcing him to give Mary in marriage. But unfortunately his wallet drops in the stable, where Mary finds it and pays the debt of her father’s indiscretion with the blackguard’s own money. // [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Having sold out a good stock of cattle, the ranchman “sets ’em up” for the boys at the town café, and in paying the bill, displays an enviable roll of greenbacks. Frank Hawley, a professional gambler, entices him into a game of poker, where, by the crooked work of the gambler and his confederates, the ranchman loses all and in the hope of “coming back” borrows from Hawley, only to lose again. It is the ranchman’s “debt of honor” and he takes Hawley home with him to show him a goodly stock of horses, the sale of which will more than pay the debt. But Hawley becomes at once interested in the ranchman’s daughter, Mary, who, however, has a lover, and spurns the gambler's attentions, dealing him a blow on the face for forwardness. Hawley becomes more than ever determined to have her for his wife by fair means or foul. He directs the theft of the ranchman’s horses, then demands his money. But he did not count on losing his fat wallet in the very stables that he robbed, which Mary finds and brings to her father just as Hawley is demanding her hand most threateningly. To claim it would be to admit the theft, so he is forced to swallow the bitter pill of his own carelessness, and to see Mary and her cowboy lover about to start life as one on the handsome balance remaining in the wallet after paying the “ranchman’s debt of honor.”
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 25 May 2024.
References: Thompson-Star p. 231 : ClasIm-226 p. 55 : Website-IMDb.
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