Before John Ford and Sergio Leone, one director dominated the western genre

CONTENT WARNING: This article includes talk about suicide.

The 1910s and 1920s Hollywood were the Wild West – and not just because it churned so many Westerns. “Babylon” Damien Chazelle It is not visually correct, but conveys the spirit of the age. Only about 25 years earlier was the first kinehouse camera, and it multiplied quickly, giving birth to a new artistic medium and a new financial industry in a rapid order. Filmmakers in Los Angeles brought out cameras into the California desert, rushed a few horses, hired actors from live western shows at the time, and almost deliberately created a genre. Westerns soon became one of the most cost-efficient and popular genres, and studios insisted that directors throw as much as they could on to a timetable as narrowly as possible.

Advertisement

Therefore, the filmographies of silent film stars and their directors were extremely abundant compared to filmmakers today. In fact, many silent filmmakers were able to complete whole features in a few weeks, sometimes even days.

Point case: Lynn Reynolds. Perhaps best known for his adaptation in 1925 of Zane Gray’s “Riders of the Purple Sage,” Reynolds was one of the unopposed masters of the West in the quiet age. Between 1915 and 1927, Reynolds directed over 80 shorts and features and an additional 58 writing, many in the western genre. Reynolds began his career in his birth Iowa, working as a reporter for a local newspaper. As a young man, he moved to Los Angeles and began to direct films for Universal. His first short was the 1915 film “Both Side of Life,” a melodramatic romance about a theology student and the woman he loves. Then, in 1915 alone, Reynolds directed nine additional short films. He hit the earth running.

Advertisement

Reynolds, however, was abundant but unhappy. The story of his death is just as famous as his huge output.

Lynn Reynolds’ first feature length film (that is: over 40 minutes) was “It Happened in Honolulu,” another romantic melodrama, this time between a wealthy young woman and a reckless fish midder. Reynolds made many tragedies and romances about love and friendship. Mostly they were character pieces over-thinking with broken hearts, stilted nostalgia, and “inappropriate” mixed class relationships. These types of melodrama were just as common as Westerns in the 1910s, although they still continue to this day. Western was probably the first feature of Reynolds “Broadway Arizona,” in 1917 from a film about cattle keeper finding love in the big city.

Advertisement

In 1918 he made “western blood” with The abundant cowboy star Tom MixAnd he was away to the races, as it were. The majority of Reynold’s output from then on was in the western genre. Reynolds went on to work with Mix a little more times and kept his output high afterwards. Eventually, five or six films a year every year until his death in 1927 at the age of 37.

Reynolds’ death story is tragic. He and his wife Kathleen O’Connor appeared to have a stormy relationship, and the pair often fought. Some reports have claimed that Reynolds is aggressive to O’Connor. Then, in 1927, the pair had arranged a lunch party with another couple after a three -week Reynolds period was unexpectedly filtered in the Sierra Nevadas. Having a company over it did not originally prevent them from arguing. Reports said Reynolds and O’Connor had accused each other of infidelity before Reynolds attacked the room to fetch a gun. Then he went on to die by suicide in front of his wife.

Advertisement

Reynolds’ last film was “Hey! Cowboy!” West 1927 completed by director Edward Laemmle (nephew Carl Laemmle Hancho and Universal War).