Year: 1922
Format: 35mm Black & White
Director: Henry MacRae
Producer: Ernest Shipman
Writer: Kenneth O’Hara, Ralph Connor, Faith Green
Cinematographer: Jacques Bizeul, Barney McGill
Editor: Elmer McGovern
Cast: Pauline Garon, Harlan Knight, Anders Randolph, E Fernandez, Warner Richmond, Marion Swayne, Jack Newton, Frank Badgley, William Colvin
Production Company: Ottawa Film Productions

Big Macdonald (Anders Randolph) and Louis LeNoir (E.L. Fernandez) run rival lumber camps in late-nineteenth-century Glengarry County. Macdonald runs the St. Clair lumber camp and has been reformed by the local minister, Alexander Murray (Harlan E. Knight), with whose daughter, Kate (Marion Swayne), McDonald’s son Ranald (Warner P. Richmond) is in love. After Macdonald is accidentally killed by LeNoir in a fight, Ranald becomes attracted to Maimie (Pauline Garon) – the daughter of the owner of the St. Clair company – but remains faithful to Kate. Later, LeNoir jams the St. Clair timber coming down the Ottawa River. He and Ranald fight, and as Kate attempts to stop them she slips into the river. Ranald dashes to the rescue, and later they are married.

Ernest Shipman’s first production in Ottawa, and the third based on a Ralph Connor novel, was shot in the early summer of 1922 at a cost of $67,000. It appears to have been a modest box-office success, but was not well-received by the critics, most of whom praised the use of locations while noting the simplistic, melodramatic plot and the weak characterizations. Connor’s novel would seem to have been badly served by the adaptation since it was one of his most acclaimed and popular.

By: Peter Morris