Directed by Scott R. Dunlap Running time 35 minutes Director Scott R. Dunlap Cinematography Devereaux Jennings | Starring Buck Jones Country United States Distributed by Fox Film | |
Release date October 15, 1922 (1922-10-15) Language Silent (English intertitles) Similar The Branded Sombrero, Western Blood, The Wilderness Trail, Dick Turpin, The Gentle Cyclone | ||
Bells of San Juan is a 1922 American Pre-Code Western film directed by Scott Dunlap and starring Buck Jones. It was based on the Jackson Gregory novel The Bells of San Juan. It was the first of five films where Claude Peyton was cast alongside Jones.
Contents
Plot
Buck Jones plays Roderick Norton, a sheriff on a crusade to find and apprehend the man who murdered his father. Unable to restore order in the mining town where he is appointed, he loses favor with the townspeople. The villain, revealed to be Jim Garson (Claude Peyton) and his gang make life miserable for Norton, culminating with the abduction of his girlfriend, frontier doctor Dorothy Page (played by Fritzi Brunette), by Garson's henchmen the Rickard brothers, in order to entrap the hero. Roderick is successful in rescuing Dorothy, but in the process he suffers a head injury which changes his personality, turning him into a thief whom his friends are unable to trust. He is brought back to his old self through the medical ministrations of Dorothy, and is able to obtain a confession regarding the murder of his father from the Rickards, allowing the capture and arrest of Garson.
Reception
Motion Picture News reviewed the film on October 28, 1922. It found the plot entirely predictable, and thought that it was one of Jones' weaker films.