The Lady of Red Butte
The Lady of Red Butte is a 1919 American silent Western film written by C. Gardner Sullivan and directed by Victor Schertzinger. Dorothy Dalton stars as a benevolent saloonkeeper in conflict with a fanatical religious zealot played by Thomas Holding. It is not known whether the film currently survives, and it may be a lost film.
Plot
Faro Fan inherits a saloon and gambling hall in Red Butte and runs it with such wholesomeness that she has a positive influence on the peaceful town. Fan also devotes her time to the care of a group of orphans she has adopted. Everything is peace and harmony when an evangelist, Webster Smith, arrives in Red Butte. "Fanatically devout, crack-brained and believing every word of his intolerant dogma, he calls forth a curse on the gambling house and all who are in it." A fever strikes the town's inhabitants, and Smith takes credit for it. Smith then prays for a fire to cleanse the town and destroy every building except the church as a sign of his wrath and mercy. A fire does sweep through the town, but it destroys Webster's church and every other building in Red Butte except Faro Fan's saloon. The salvation of the gambling house sends the religious fanatic into a rage, and he attacks the Lady of Red Butte. She hits him on the head, and his sanity is restored. He then becomes the personification of love and kindliness and later wins the Lady's heart.
More details
author | C. Gardner Sullivan |
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director | Victor Schertzinger |
editor | Ralph Dixon |
genre | western |
keywords | adopt build church gambling house religious fanatic |
producer | Thomas H. Ince |
productionCompany | Thomas H. Ince Corporation |
publisher | Paramount Pictures |