The Great Divide
Cast & Crew
Edgar Lewis
Ethel Clayton
House Peters
Marie Sterling
Hayden Stevenson
Mary Moore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
The Jordan family is forced to leave its conservative Eastern home and move to Arizona. Alone one night in their new shack, Ruth Jordan is threatened with rape by three drunken men, including Stephen Ghent, from whom Ruth finally begs protection. After killing one of his companions in a duel and buying off the other, Pedro, with a necklace of nuggets, Ghent takes Ruth to find a preacher. Married in name only, Ghent leaves his bride alone for several weeks, but while on a drunken spree, violates his promise not to molest her. Budding love turns to hate, and Ruth resolves to work selling baskets until she can buy back her freedom. Pedro attacks her, but she throws him off a cliff and regains possession of the nugget necklace. As she climbs back up the cliff, a landslide starts, and a repentant Ghent struggles to save his wife, then himself. Contemplating Ruth's newly discovered pregnancy, the couple reconciles.
Director
Edgar Lewis
Cast
Ethel Clayton
House Peters
Marie Sterling
Hayden Stevenson
Mary Moore
Warner P. Richmond
Ferdinand O'beck
Ray Chamberlain
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
A copy of this film survives at the British Film Institute in London.
The film was started by director Romaine Fielding before it was turned over to Edgar Lewis. Some sections of Fielding's work remain in the finished print.
Notes
Exteriors for the film were shot at the Grand Canyon, Gallup and Albuquerque, NM and in Georgia, where seven hundred pounds of dynamite were used to create a mountain landslide. A pre-release article lists Arthur E. Matthews as a cast member. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures made a film based on the same source, entitled The Great Divide in 1925. It was directed by Reginald Barker and starred Alice Terry and Conway Tearle. (See AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30). In 1929, First National Pictures made a film also entitled The Great Divide based on the same source, which also was directed by Reginald Barker and starred Dorothy Mackaill and Ian Keith. (See AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30.) In 1931, First National released Woman Hungry in Technicolor based on the same source. It was directed by Clarence Badger and starred Lila Lee and Sidney Blackmer (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40).
