Shortly after Bison's establishment in California, production duties were taken over by Thomas H. Ince, one of the great early pioneers of cinema. Today, Ince is chiefly remembered as the center of one of Hollywood's first scandals, one that persists to this day despite numerous attempts to set the record straight. In a nutshell, Ince's sudden death in 1924 at the age of 42 was officially attributed to a heart attack, but almost immediately after his passing, rumors abounded throughout the film community that he had been shot, likely by accident, aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht, possibly by Hearst himself in a fit of jealousy. Ince's contributions to motion picture history, however, are far more important than salacious stories of his death; he is credited as an important innovator, not only giving birth to the Western genre but also introducing the system of assembly-line filmmaking to the industry. Not long after taking the reins at Bison in 1911, Ince acquired a small ranch near Santa Monica, then took out a lease on an adjoining 18,000 acres and shifted the studio operations there, the old Edendale lot going to comedy producer Mack Sennett. Eventually, Bison's new production center became known as "Inceville," recognized today as the first modern motion picture studio, where Ince introduced such practices as on-paper pre-production planning, use of detailed shooting scripts, and shooting schedule breakdowns so that scenes could be shot simultaneously by second-unit crews.
The Indian Massacre was Ince's second production for Bison, although he had already directed more than 80 pictures in the preceding two years. He is also credited with the scenario of this story about mutual vengeance between Indians and white settlers. The plot introduces more than just Western action, however, centering on two mothers, one a settler, the other an Indian woman, whose babies become pawns in the ongoing conflict. This narrative focus adds an element of touching emotion and humanness to the drama and a certain sympathy for the Native American population in a genre that generally supported the unchecked westward expansion of the United States at the expense of the continent's indigenous people.
The lead role, that of the Indian chief, is played by Francis Ford (1881-1953), elder brother of John Ford and himself a director and writer of approximately 175 pictures between 1912 and 1928. Ford began acting in 1909 and, by the time of his death, appeared in close to 500 movies. In his later years, he played supporting roles mostly in Westerns, including many of his brother's most famous films (My Darling Clementine, 1946; Fort Apache, 1948; She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, 1949).
Although the chief is portrayed by a Caucasian, in line with Hollywood practice for much of the history of Westerns, one of the other main cast members, William Eagle Shirt, was a member of the Sioux nation and an Ince favorite, appearing in six or seven of the producer-director's films and screenwriter for two of them. Eagle Shirt also appeared in pictures directed by Francis Ford, including a turn as Sitting Bull in Custer's Last Fight (1912), and a couple of Raoul Walsh's earliest films. Little is known of him after his last picture in 1917.
Far more is known about another cast member, Art Acord (1890-1931), who does double duty in The Indian Massacre as both an Indian and a settler. The Oklahoma-born Acord was a real cowboy and rodeo champ before entering movies as a stuntman and actor in 1910. Acord made more than 100 films before he died at the age of 40, although the coming of sound and a serious drinking problem ended his film career early. He took to doing road shows and dabbling in mining in Mexico, where he died of cyanide poisoning, complicated by hepatitis. His death was officially ruled a suicide but many of his friends insisted he was murdered by a Mexican politician who caught Acord in an affair with his wife. He now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Director: Thomas H. Ince
Producer: Thomas H. Ince
Screenplay: Thomas H. Ince
Cinematography: Ray C. Smallwood
Cast: Francis Ford (Indian Chief), Anna Little, Grace Cunard, William Eagle Shirt, Art Acord.
BW-32m.
by Rob Nixon
