Pursued
Cast & Crew
Louis King
Rosemary Ames
Victor Jory
Pert Kelton
Russell Hardie
George Irving
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
David Landeen of San Francisco arrives at the port of Ropangi, British North Borneo, in order to take over his deceased uncle's plantation on the neighboring island of Tilo. Beauregard, who owns the next plantation and who has taken control of the Landeen property, sends a group of island natives to beat David up and take his papers. The natives leave David for dead, and Mona, who sings at a casino, rescues him. She calls Dr. Otto Steiner, who reports that David has been temporarily blinded and that he must convalesce in Mona's room, despite Mona's protestations, because the tropical sun might cause permanent damage to his eyes. At the casino that night, Beauregard asks Mona to live with him on his island, and he tries to give her a pearl. She refuses both offers, and her friend Gilda chides her for not taking advantage of Beauregard's bounty. Beauregard follows Mona home and after forcing his way into her room, sees a figure in bed, whom he does not recognize as David. When Beauregard grabs Mona, she slashes his arm with a knife. Ashamed of her circumstances, Mona tells David, whose eyes are still bandaged, that her apartment is actually a wing of a large plantation house owned by her rich father. When David declares to Mona that he loves her, he prematurely pulls the bandages from his eyes, extolls her beauty, and then asks her to marry him. She agrees, but Gilda later insists that David will leave her when he discovers that she is not a rich man's daughter but only a cabaret singer. Mona seeks the advice of her friend, Dr. Steiner, and he recommends that she go to San Francisco, where he will arrange for her a job as a student nurse. Mona decides to take his advice and, in a note she leaves for David, says she is going away to become the girl that he believes her to be. At the boat dock, Beauregard lures Mona on board a schooner by offering her a ride to Sandican, where, he says, she can pick up the boat bound for the States. Beauregard, however, takes her to his plantation on Tilo and keeps her there by force, hoping that eventually she will want him. When he discovers that Mona has left, David tells Dr. Steiner that her past does not matter to him, but the doctor convinces him to give her a chance to remake her life. A week later, David, now recovered, arrives in Tilo to take over the Landern plantation. He is shocked to see Mona at Beauregard's house, and when she acts as if their romance was not serious, David leaves in disgust for his own house. Beauregard then instructs his cohort Hansen to kill David, but Hansen refuses, and Beauregard knocks him out. Mona, who has overheard their quarrel, gets a gun, but Beauregard takes it away. After she pleads for David's life and relates how she came to know him, Beauregard slugs her and goes off to David's with his gun. Mona follows and then struggles with Beauregard as he is about to shoot David. As Beauregard and David fight, David gets the gun. While Mona explains to David that she did not willingly leave Ropangi with Beauregard, Beauregard grabs the gun, and the two men struggle once again. As Hansen arrives, Beauregard knocks David out. Mona gets the gun, and as Beauregard is about to kill David with his machete, Mona shoots Beauregard three times. Hansen then tells the natives that Beauregard died accidentally. While David is unconscious, Mona goes to the boat to leave. David awakens, however, and stops her from going, despite her pleas, by telling her that he needs her. She falls to her knees and they embrace.
Director
Louis King
Cast
Rosemary Ames
Victor Jory
Pert Kelton
Russell Hardie
George Irving
Torben Meyer
Jimmie Dime
John Gough
Allan Sears
Elsie Larson
Virginia Hills
Lucille Miller
Peggy Stratford
Iris Yamaoka
Douglas Gerrard
Hans Von Morhart
Harry Semels
Ella Serrurier
Betty Schofield
Miss Frieda
Will Stanton
Tom Ricketts
Margaret Mann
Nora Cecil
Constance Purdy
Chan Jim
Arthur Shirley
Fred Sullivan
Stanley Price
John Rogers
Crew
Harry Akst
Stuart Anthony
Sid Bowen
S. C. Chapman
Sidney Clare
Lester Cole
Chic Collins
Duncan Cramer
Al De Gaetano
Ann Doran
Duke Green
Samuel Kaylin
L. W. O'connell
Frank Powolny
Royer
Winfield R. Sheehan
Sol M. Wurtzel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Fox also made a Spanish-language version of this film-see record for Nada más que una mujer. The working title of the English-language version was Wanted. According to information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection in the UCLA Arts-Special Collections Library, treatments based on the story were written in 1930 by Hayden Talbot, John Russell, Basil Woon and Paul Dickey; it is not known if any of their material was used for the final film.
While the Call Bureau Cast Service for the English language version credits Fred Walton as "Ticket agent" and Will Stanton as "Tourist-Drunk," a viewing of the print revealed that Stanton played the ticket agent. It is not known if Walton was in the final film. According to Daily Variety, Pursued was put on the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency "condemned" list. Fox earlier produced two films based on the same source: the 1917, When a Man Sees Red, directed by Frank Lloyd and starring William Farnum and Jewel Carmen; and the 1924, The Painted Lady, directed by Chester Bennett and starring George O'Brien and Dorothy Mackaill.
