| The Good Bad-Man | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Allan Dwan |
| Written by | Douglas Fairbanks |
| Produced by | Douglas Fairbanks |
| Starring | Douglas Fairbanks |
| Cinematography | Victor Fleming |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Triangle Film Corporation (1916 release) Tri-Stone Pictures (1923 re-release) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 50 minutes; 5 reels[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | Silent English intertitles |
The Good Bad-Man[a] is a 1916 American silent Western film directed by Allan Dwan. The film was written by Douglas Fairbanks, and produced by Fairbanks and the Fine Arts Film Company. It stars Fairbanks and Bessie Love.
The film was originally distributed by Triangle Film Corporation. The film was edited and re-released by Tri-Stone Pictures in 1923.[4]
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"Passin' Through" (Fairbanks) is a benevolent outlaw who holds up trains so that he can provide for fatherless children in the Old West. He knows little of his personal history, but he is pursued by a US marshal (Cannon) who does. Along the way, he encounters Amy (Love), and falls in love with her. A rival bandit, "The Wolf" (De Grasse), is also a rival for Amy, but Passin' and Amy eventually marry.[1][3][5]
No print of the original 1916 release exists, but a print of the 1923 re-release is preserved at the Library of Congress.[7]
On May 31, 2014, a restored print of the 1923 version was shown at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival at the Castro Theatre.[5] This print has an original title at the beginning: "Supervised by D. W. Griffith".
At the film's Los Angeles premiere, Bessie Love sang "The Rosary" by Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin.[8]
The film received positive reviews.[1][3] The cast and director, in particular, were noted for their excellent work in contemporaneous reviews.[1][3]
Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance finds The Good Bad-Man fascinating for what it reveals about Fairbanks the man. Vance writes:
Passin' Through's unresolved relationship with an absent father and concerns of illegitimacy were also central to the identity of the offscreen Fairbanks, born Douglas Ulman. His mother, Ella Fairbanks (née Marsh), had been twice married before meeting attorney H. Charles Ulman, the son of German-Jewish immigrants. An alcoholic and bigamist, Ulman abandoned his new family when Douglas was five years old. At that time, Douglas's mother changed the family's surname to that of her deceased first husband, "Fairbanks." H. Charles Ulman died in 1915 and was undoubtedly in Fairbanks's thoughts in early 1916 when he developed the story of The Good Bad Man. The personal concerns and anxieties Fairbanks felt toward his identity were deeply concealed, which makes their exploration with his film's restless hero fascinating to watch.[5]
