On Dangerous Ground (1917)

Robert Thornby: On Dangerous Ground (1917) with Carlyle Blackwell and Gail Kane. Photo: IMDb.

Robert Thornby: On Dangerous Ground (1917) with Carlyle Blackwell and Gail Kane. Photo: Nitrateville.

ON DANGEROUS GROUND (World-Peerless, US 1917)
    Dir: Robert Thornby; ph: Lucien Andriot; adapted by Frances Marion from “Little Comrade, a Tale of the Great War”, by Burton E. Stevenson; cast: Carlyle Blackwell, Gail Kane, William Bailey; rel. 8.1.1917.
    35 mm, ? ft, Library of Congress.
    Grand piano: Donald Sosin.
    Viewed at Teatro Zancanaro, Sacile, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM) / Fort Lee, 11 Oct 2004.   

Richard Koszarski (GCM): "Fort Lee filmmakers began dramatizing the Great War almost as soon as the first shots were fired. Ramo Films quickly adapted another project and staged The War of Wars, or the Franco-German Invasion in Grantwood, New Jersey, in August 1914. But most of the war films produced here over the next few years eschewed elaborate battle scenes in favor of more intimate melodrama involving spies, divided families, and cross-border romances. On Dangerous Ground was adapted by the prolific screenwriter Frances Marion from an intriguing John Buchan-style thriller, although the character of the aggressive heroine is clearly more indebted to Pearl White and other female action stars of the era." – Richard Koszarski (GCM)

AA: I only saw the beginning of this obviously interesting WWI drama with a strong female lead, written by Frances Marion.