Branding Broadway Explained

Branding Broadway
Director:William S. Hart
Producer:Thomas H. Ince
William S. Hart
Starring:William S. Hart
Seena Owen
Arthur Shirley
Cinematography:Joseph H. August
Studio:William S. Hart Productions
Distributor:Artcraft Pictures
Runtime:50 minutes
Country:United States
Language:Silent
English intertitles

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]

Plot

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

Actor Role
Robert Sands
Mary Lee
Larry Harrington
Andrew Robson Harrington Sr
Dick Horn (as Lewis W. Short)

Reception

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

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

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=14847 The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Branding Broadway
  2. Official Cut-Outs by the Chicago Board of Censors . Exhibitors Herald . 7 . 26 . 42 . Exhibitors Herald Company . New York City . December 21, 1918 .
  3. https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.2814/default.html The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Branding Broadway
  4. http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/B/BrandingBroadway1918.html Progressive Silent Film List: Branding Broadway