Across the Dead-Line | |
Director: | Jack Conway |
Producer: | Carl Laemmle |
Story: | Clarence Budington Kelland |
Starring: | Frank Mayo |
Cinematography: | Leland Lancaster |
Distributor: | Universal Film Manufacturing Company |
Runtime: | 5 reels |
Country: | United States |
Language: | Silent (English intertitles) |
Across the Dead-Line is a lost[1] 1922 American silent northwoods drama film directed by Jack Conway and starring Frank Mayo.[2] [3]
As described in a film magazine,[4] after Enoch Kidder (Simpson) discovers his son John (Mayo) in his brother Aaron's (Lucas) saloon, he lays a line down the center of the main street of the rough mining town and separating the brothers' houses, and tells Aaron that he will kill him if he ever steps across it. John later finds a young woman in the wood wearing a wedding gown who does not remember how she got there or her name, and John befriends her against his father's wishes. Aaron wants to discredit John's honesty and attempts to blackmail him and kidnap the woman, now known as Ruth (Malone). Aaron obtains a warrant to arrest the woman by a man posing as her husband. Warned of Aaron's plan, John takes Ruth to a lodge high in the mountains. Abel (Swickard), an old man with a grievance against Aaron, follows him. Enoch also goes, determined to find his son. When Aaron attempts to arrest John, a fight breaks out between them. When Aaron is killed, the mystery of who shot him is cleared up when Abel confesses. Ruth's memory is restored, and there is a happy ending when her bogus husband is exposed.