The Ancient Highway is a 1925 American silent adventure film directed by Irvin Willat and written by James Shelley Hamilton and Eve Unsell based upon the novel of the same name by James Oliver Curwood. The film stars Jack Holt, Billie Dove, Montagu Love, Stanley Taylor, Lloyd Whitlock, and William A. Carroll. The film was released on November 8, 1925, by Paramount Pictures.
Plot As described in a film magazine reviews, Cliff Brant wanders the world but eventually returns to Canada to avenge the death of his father, which was caused by Ivan Hurd. He beats Hurd almost to death. The fight is witnessed by Antoinette St. Ives, owner of a paper company that is a competitor of Hurd's. Hurd loves Antoinette also, and tries to ruin her company to force her to accept him. Antoinette warns Brant that Hurd has reported him to the police and he takes to “The Ancient Highway,” a famous stream in Quebec. He rescues Antoinette's brother from a crowd of ruffians and takes him home. The lad introduces Brant to Antoinette and he falls in love with her. He declares his love but she is repulsed by his primitive tactics though she loves him. Hurd plots the ruin of Antoinette's company once more and tries to jam the logs going to her mill. Brant prevents this and establishes himself solidly with the young woman. A frenzied monk kills Hurd.
Cast
Fatality while filming on location in Oregon Environmental journalists Paul Koberstein and Jessica Applegate in Canopy of Titans (2023) report that while filming a scene on the Coos River in Oregon, a Splash dam was operating upstream.Koberstein and Applegate, 2023 p. 137 Historian Lionel Youst provided this account of the incident in his book Lost in Coos (2019):
Preservation The Ancient Highway is presumed to be a lost film.The Ancient Highway at Lost Film Files: Lost Paramount films - 1925
Footnotes
Sources Koberstein, Paul and Applegate, Jessica. 2023. Canopy of Titans: The Life and Times of the Great North American Temperate Rainforest. OR Books, New York, London. (paperback). Youst, Lionel. 2019. Lost in Coos: "Heroic Deeds and Thrilling Adventures" of Searches and Rescues on Coos River, Coos County, Oregon 1871 to 2000. Golden Falls Publishing, Allegheny, Oregon.
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