The Good Bad-Man

{{Infobox film

| name = The Good Bad-Man

| image = The Good Bad Man.jpg

| alt = Poster of a worried Bessie Love embracing Douglas Fairbanks, with the caption "Are you for me?"

| caption = Theatrical poster

| director = Allan Dwan

| writer = Douglas Fairbanks

| producer = Douglas Fairbanks

| starring = Douglas Fairbanks

| cinematography = Victor Fleming

| studio = Fine Arts Film Company

| distributor = {{Plainlist|

Triangle Film Corporation (1916 release)
Tri-Stone Pictures (1923 re-release)

}}

| released = {{Film date|1916|04|21|Original release|1923|10|19|Re-release}}

| runtime = 50 minutes; 5 reels

| country = United States

| language = Silent (English intertitles)

}}

The Good Bad-Man{{efn|The title correctly has a hyphen between Bad and Man, which appears on posters for the film{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107192410/http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/8eddb2a2|archive-date=November 7, 2012|title=The Good Bad Man (1916)|website=MoviePosterDB.com|url=http://www.movieposterdb.com/movie/0006736/The-Good-Bad-Man.html}} and in contemporaneous reviews.}} 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 and was re-edited and re-released by Tri-Stone Pictures in 1923.{{cite web|url=http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/G/GoodBadMan1916.html|website=Silent Era|title=Progressive Silent Film List: The Good Bad Man|last=Bennett|first=Carl|date=March 11, 2018}}

File:The Good Bad Man (1916).webm

Plot

File:Bessie Love and Douglas Fairbanks in The Good Bad-Man (1916).jpg

"Passin' Through" (Fairbanks) is a benevolent outlaw who robs trains to provide for fatherless children in the Old West. He knows little of his personal history but is pursued by a U.S. Marshal (Cannon) who does. Along the way, he meets Amy (Love) and falls in love with her. A rival bandit, "The Wolf" (De Grasse), is also competing for Amy's affections, but Passin' and Amy ultimately marry.{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturenew132unse/page/2380|magazine=Motion Picture News|first=Oscar|last=Cooper|page=2381|date=April 22, 1916|volume=13|issue=16|title=Screen Examinations}}{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/motography152elec/page/938|magazine= Motography|first=Thomas C.|last=Kennedy|volume=15|issue=17|title=Current Releases Reviewed|date=April 22, 1916}}

Cast

{{castlist|

Douglas Fairbanks as "Passin' Through"
Sam De Grasse as Bud Frazer / The Wolf
Pomeroy Cannon as Bob Evans the Marshal
Joseph Singleton as Weazel
Bessie Love as Amy
Mary Alden as Jane Stuart
George Beranger as Thomas Stuart
Fred Burns as Sheriff
Charles Stevens as a Bandit (uncredited)
Jim Mason as a Bandit (uncredited)

}}

Preservation status

File:BessieLoveDouglasFairbanks.JPG was used to illustrate the short story "Coyote o' the Rio Grande". Coyote o' the Rio Grande is not an alternate title for the film.{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/californianoverl68sanfrich/page/384|page=384|magazine=Overland Monthly|date=November 1916|title=Coyote o' the Rio Grande|last=De Ryee|first=William}}}}]]

No print of the original 1916 release is known to survive, but a print of the 1923 re-release is preserved at the Library of Congress.{{harvnb|Lombardi|2013|page=60}}

On May 31, 2014, a restored print of the 1923 version was screened at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival at the Castro Theatre. This print included an original title card stating it was "Supervised by D. W. Griffith".

Release and reception

At the film's Los Angeles premiere, Bessie Love performed the song "The Rosary" by Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin.{{harvnb|Lombardi|2013|page=62}}

The film received positive reviews. The cast and direction were particularly praised in contemporaneous trade publications.

Legacy

Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance considers The Good Bad-Man significant for its insight into Fairbanks's personal life. Vance wrote:

{{blockquote|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.{{cite book|last=Vance|first=Jeffrey|author-link=Jeffrey Vance|chapter=The Good Bad Man|title=San Francisco Silent Film Festival program book, May 29 – June 1, 2014|url=http://www.silentfilm.org/archive/the-good-bad-man}}}}

Notes

References

Bibliography

{{cite book |last=Lombardi |first=Frederic |title=Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios |chapter=Part One: The Lusty Child |publisher=McFarland |year=2013 |isbn=978-07-86434-85-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UXDWNnQMwA4C}}