SILENT FILMS 1920s: WINDS OF CHANCE (1925)
CREDITS
Relased: August 16, 1925
Production Company: First National Pictures
Distributor: First National Pictures
Featured Cast: Anna Q. Nilsson, Ben Lyon, Viola Dana, Hobart Bosworth, Victor McLaglen, Dorothy Sebastian, Claude Gillingwater, Charles Crockett, Larry Fisher, Fred Kohler, Wade Boteler, Philo McCullough, John T. Murray, Fred Warren, George Nichols, Tom London, J. Gunnis Davis, William Conklin, Jack W. Johnston, Anna M. Wilson, Frederick Sullivan, C.E. Anderson, Barney Furey, James O’Malley
Director: Frank Lloyd
Producer: Frank Lloyd
Cinematographer: Norbert Brodine
Writers: Rex Beach (novel), J.G. Hawks (adaptation)
STORY
Pierce Phillips joins the Alaska gold rush and is trimmed clean by the operator of a shell game. He gets a job packing luggage for the Countess Courteau, and a mutual love develops. When she finally admits that she is still entangled in the bonds of matrimony, Pierce brokenheartedly returns to Dawson and gets a job as a gold weigher in a dancehall. He is framed for robbery by Count Courteau and a piqued vamp called Laura, but the countess obtains evidence to clear him. Count Courteau is killed, and Pierce is blamed unjustly for his death. The Mounties find the real killer, and Pierce is free to find happiness with the countess. (TCM)
TECH
Runtime 2 hr 2 min (122 min)
Sound Mix Silent
Color Black and White
Aspect Ratio 1.33 : 1
Film Length 2,878.85 m (10 reels) (UK)
2,912.05 m (10 reels) (USA)
Negative Format 35 mm
Cinematographic Process Spherical
Printed Film Format 35 mm
Looking on as Frank cuts his 38th birthday cake, among the cast and crew, is his buddy fellow Brit, Victor McLaglen (in the colorful pants) during the filming of “Winds of Chance”. Before acting, McLaglen was a prize-fighter, one evening famously almost knocking Frank over on his way to the ring. That was the beginning of their life-long friendship, three films together, a shared love of the outdoors, jokes and horses.
Here they are on location in cold Truckee, California, where a movie-set version of the Yukon’s Dawson City of 1897 gold rush was built in February, Frank’s birth month, 1925. During the filming of the outdoors scenes, with cameras and crew all bundled up against the cold and wind, the audience can see the actors’ breath and feel their shivers.
Also staring Anna Q Nilsson as a countess, this movie drama presents prospectors, trappers, clans, dance hall girls, a murder, a love triangle, a daring river rescue and beautiful color tinting.
