The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild is a 1908 American short silent Western film directed by D. W. Griffith and produced by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. The short, a "one-reeler", stars Charles Inslee, Harry Solter and Florence Lawrence. Its interior scenes were shot at Biograph's studio facilities in New York City, and its exteriors were filmed on location in Coytesville, today one of the oldest communities in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Prints of this short survive, including in the film archives of the Library of Congress. Despite its title, the motion picture is not an adaption of Jack London's 1903 adventure novel The Call of the Wild. Its content is entirely unrelated to that literary work. Plot The story, set in the late 1800s, is a cross-cultural melodrama about Gladys Penrose (Florence Lawrence), a young white woman who rejects the professed love of George Redfeather (Charles Inslee). George, a Native American, has lived for years in white society and has just returned to the American West from Pennsylvania, where he graduated with high honors and was a football star at a prominent "Indian boarding school" in Carlisle. In recognition of George's scholastic and athletic achievements, Gladys's father, a lieutenant in the United States Army, holds a formal reception and dance for the local "hero". George, however, has fallen desperately in love with Gladys, and at the party he openly expresses his feelings to her as well as his desire to marry her one day. She angrily dismisses his advances, and her father, also angered, orders the young man out of the Penrose house. After leaving the party, George goes back to the small house in town where he living. Once back in his bedroomhumiliated and infuriated by his treatmenthe strips off his "white man's" formal evening attire and dons traditional native buckskin clothing as well as an elaborate war bonnet. He then leaves the town and rejoins his tribe "in the wilds". Back with his "own people", George agitates a small group of his fellow braves with a fiery speech and bottles of whiskey, and then, after becoming inebriated, he returns by himself to the town to spy on Gladys and to observe her activities. When he sees her go riding alone on horseback into the countryside, George assembles six of his braves, and they chase and capture Gladys while she is gathering wildflowers. George now tries to force his affections on her as his men watch and laugh in the background. Gladys struggles and rebuffs him.