Brute Force (1917)

movie

Country: USA
Genres: Short, Western
Release: 1917-01-20
Director: A.W. Rice
Writers: Eustace Hale Ball , Earl R. Hewitt
Language: None | English
Stars: George C. Pearce , Jane Bernoudy , Jim Farley , Philip Hahn , Miss Hallenbeck
Runtime: min
Awards: N/A
AKA: Brute Force (United States of America) , Brute Force
Plot: John Clayborn has been absent from a small mountain town for some time. He returns and he is an ordained minister. Tess' uncle, old Hank Harding, who owns a large farm, is not much enthused over ministers as he likes his whiskey too well. Harding's daughter, Bess, is so devoted to her father that she will not leave him to marry Lew Sanderson. Lew does not appreciate the arrival of Clayborn, as he realizes that Bess likes him as does Tess, but Clayborn considers the latter but a child. Bess promises her father that she will not marry so long as he lives, so Lew builds three or four stills on Harding's place and then informs the revenue officers that Harding is operating stills. During his calls, Clayborn visits the home of one of the men who is dying and has worked for Lew and has been mistreated. He tells him of the plot and Clayborn arrives at the station just in time to meet the officers and explain that it was only a trick against Harding. Lew, who has laid his plans well, has taken a couple of jugs of moonshine to Harding's, plied him with drinks, until he is in a drunken stupor. Clayborn secures the aid of Bess and they destroy the stills, but the old man, hearing a noise, takes his gun and shoots Clayborn in the arm. That night, Lew sends word for Bess to meet Clayborn at a certain house and sends word to Clayborn to meet her at the same place. When the minister arrives, he is beaten and taken to the loft. When Bess arrives she learns of the ruse that has been played upon her and Lew demands that she marry him or he will have her father sent to prison. He threatens Clayborn with damaging Bess' name if he will not marry them. Just as he is on the point of performing the ceremony, the officers fire the house. Clayborn rescues Bess from the burning loft, and, at the risk of his own life, drags Lew from the burning building, but he later dies. Tess for a time is heartbroken because she has lost the minister, he and Bess being happy in their love.
IMDB:tt0343493