The Desert Scorpion (originally titled The Last of the Open Range) is a 1920 American silent Western film directed by Otis B. Thayer and starring Edmund Cobb and Vida Johnson. The film was shot in Denver, Colorado by the Thayer's Art-O-Graf film company."A Guide to Silent Westerns" By Larry Langman, Greenwood press 1992, page 116"Western and Frontier Film and Television Credits 1903-1995: Section I. Actors and actresses. Section II. Directors, producers, and writers" by Harris M. Lentz, McFarland, 1996, pages 169, 771"Eighty Silent Film Stars: Biographies and Filmographies of the Obscure to the Well Known" by George A. Katchmer, McFarland, 1991, page 144"The strong, silent type: over 100 screen cowboys, 1903-1930" by Buck Rainey, McFarland & Company Incorporated Pub, 2004, page 159-160
Plot A feud between sheepherders and cattlemen heats up when the cattlemen set fire to the sheepherder's homes. The Sheepherder, who is in love with the Cattle Queen's daughter, leads a robbery on the cattlemen's bank. The Sheriff's daughter is impregnated and deserted by the Cattle Queen's daughter's fiancé. The sheepherders rescue her and abduct the Cattle King's daughter to nurse her back to health. The cattlemen track them back to the cabin where everything is revealed and forgiven. And the Cattle Queen's daughter falls in love with the Sheepherder.
Cast Edmund Cobb as the Sheepherder Vida Johnson as his daughter Clare Hatten as the Cattle Queen Otis B. Thayer as the Sheriff Gretchen Wood as a sheepherder's wife Zelma Edwards Frank Gallager A. E. McCormick Dave Campbell Babe Courvoisier Fred Shafer Lewis Milner
Crew Otis B. Thayer Managing Director Vernon L. Walker Head Cameraman H. Haller Murphy Cameraman
Censorship Initially rejected in its entirety by the Kansas Board of Review, it was passed upon review with several cuts. The board required the elimination of several intertitles portraying the Sheriff's daughter as being "love sick" rather than betrayed, and to eliminate all references to her giving birth in the cabin.
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