The Fighting Coward (Silent)

Tom Rumford, the only son of a Mississippi military family, returns home after being raised by a Quaker step-uncle in Philadelphia. Now a pacifist, Tom raises his family's ire when he refuses to duel a rival suitor for his cousin Elvira's hand in marriage. Rather than continue as a laughingstock, the boy learns everything he can about guns and swords from cranky old General Orlando Jackson, a once-famous gunslinger. Taking an assumed name and wearing a mask, Tom uses his new skills to humiliate the men who once laughed at him. However, this makeover backfires when he learns that Elvira's prettier younger sister, Lucy, liked him for the peace-loving man he was. Is it too late for Tom to change back?

A charming silent adventure comedy, The Fighting Coward is directed by the legendary James Cruze, later to make such masterpieces as The Covered Wagon (1923), The Great Gabbo (1929) and I Cover the Waterfront (1933). Leading man Cullen Landis started out wanting to be a railroad engineer, but got bit by the acting bug after his sister Margaret started appearing in films. (He did get to design a model train set once he became a movie star, though.) Though perhaps obscure today, he was a popular actor during the silent era, with notable starring roles in Soul of the Beast (1923) and Winning the Futurity (1926), as well as Warner Brothers' early sound picture Lights of New York (1928). The real star of the film, however, is Ernest Torrence, who steals the movie as General Orlando Jackson. Torrence had memorable parts in some of the greatest films of the Silent Age, including playing a violent psychopath in Tol'able David (1921) and Buster Keaton's crusty father in Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928). Also adding to the proceedings considerably is the presence of a luminous Mary Astor - just 18 years old at the time! In her twenties and thirties, Astor would give strong performances in classics like Red Dust (1932), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Midnight (1939), and most famously, The Maltese Falcon (1941)