| The Three Godfathers | |
| Director: | Edward LeSaint |
| Producer: | Universal's "Bluebird Photoplays" unit |
| Starring: | Harry Carey |
| Distributor: | Universal Pictures |
| Runtime: | 6 reels |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | Silent English intertitles |
The Three Godfathers is a 1916 American silent film featuring Harry Carey, based on a novel of the same name by Peter B. Kyne. The film was remade in 1919 as Marked Men, which also starred Carey.[1] John Ford's 1948 remake of Three Godfathers was dedicated to Harry Carey Sr., the star of the first adaptation.[2]
“Three bandits, escaping from the scene of a bank robbery they have committed, are caught in a sand storm which serves to obliterate their trail, but works disaster in their immediate vicinity. A prospector strays from his traveling outfit and perishes in the storm. The three bandits come upon the "prairie schooner" just at the time the prospector's wife gives birth to a child and dies, leaving the infant in care of the bandits. Miles away from any habitation, the methods employed by these hardy men to sustain life in the body of the newborn babe, and the tenderness in which they fulfill their strangely imposed mission, constitutes a remarkable example of human kindness. When the three men are able to proceed toward the nearest settlement, two of them die as a result of wounds and privation. One of the "three godfathers" manages to reach the settlement where he discovers the girl with whom he has fallen in love, just previous to robbing the bank. Here, too, he finds the sheriff awaiting his arrival. The bandit turns the child over to his girl, and submits himself to the authority of the sheriff while recovering from the effects of his well-nigh fatal experience on the desert. Subsequently the bandit makes good his escape, taking with him the baby and the girl he loves. Once more on the desert, the bandit locates the loot where it has been buried. Then conscience overcomes his desire for freedom when he remembers that he has promised the mother to rear the baby boy in the path of rectitude. Retracing his steps, the bandit surrenders to the sheriff, confesses his share in the bank robbery, and by a strange coincidence the baby is proven to be the sheriff's nephew. Then it is that the sheriff stretches his authority to the extent of giving to the bandit and his girl the reward that has been offered for the bank robbers, dead or alive, and the story ends with the apparent prospect of a happy and useful future for all concerned.”
- synopsis by The Moving Picture World.