The Vanishing American

1925

103 Min

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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DIR George B. Seitz

CAST Richard Dix, Noah Beery Jr., Lois Wilson, Malcolm McGregor, Shannon Day, Charles Crockett

Synopsis

Based on the Zane Grey novel, this silent drama depicts the plight of American Indians. Nophaie (Richard Dix) is a Navajo leader in Monument Valley, Ariz., and Indian-hating Booker (Noah Beery) is the reservation overseer who steals from Nophaie’s tribe. Nophaie’s only supporter — the reservation’s teacher (Lois Wilson) — tells him that winning World War I will improve the tribe’s lot. But after the war, Nophaie finds conditions unchanged.

Director

George B. Seitz

George Brackett Seitz (January 3, 1888 – July 8, 1944) was an American playwright, screenwriter, film actor and director. He was known for his screenplays for action serials, including:

The Perils of Pauline (1914) The Exploits of Elaine (1914) The Shielding Shadow (1916) The Black Secret (1919) The Iron Claw (1916) The Phantom Foe (1920) The Last of the Mohicans (1936)

Seitz was born in Boston, Massachusetts, started his career as a playwright, and also wrote some fiction for “up-market” pulp magazines such as Adventure and People’s Magazine.

Seitz did much of his early work in Fort Lee, New Jersey when many other early film studios in America’s first motion picture industry were based there. He was the director of 107 films, the writer of 31 screenplays, and an actor in 7 films. He worked at Columbia Pictures and at MGM where he directed 11 of the Andy Hardy series of films of the 1930s & 1940s. He died in Hollywood, California. Although an acquaintance of the cinematographer… read more