By the spring of 1915, Hart had made some 20 two-reel pictures for producer Thomas Ince, averaging two every month. Keno Bates, Liar (1915; also known as The Last Card) tells a story Hart would largely repeat a few years later in "Blue Blazes" Rawden (1918). As I outline in my biography of Ince, these two films reveal that the difference between a Hart two-reel short such as this one, the last of the series, and a feature was not in the fundamental narrative, but how it was treated. The feature has more details and a slower pace, while the short relies on greater density in its unfolding events.
In "Blue Blazes" Rawden, Hart plays the title role, the leader of "virile, grim men of strong pleasures and strong vices" who are the despoilers of the huge trees of the forest primeval. The nearest settlement is full of "the devil's lures," and here a "half-breed" "squaw," Babette, becomes attracted to Rawden. A fight ensues and Rawden kills her companion, Hilgard.
However, his emotions change when he learns Hilgard's mother was coming to visit. He realizes the purity of a mother's love. Rawden ensures that she hears nothing but good of her son, selling Hilgard's saloon to benefit her. Ultimately Rawden himself, although earning Babette's love, is touched more by the idyllic mother, believing God has been revealed to him.
In "Blue Blazes" Rawden, Hart plays the title role, the leader of "virile, grim men of strong pleasures and strong vices" who are the despoilers of the huge trees of the forest primeval. The nearest settlement is full of "the devil's lures," and here a "half-breed" "squaw," Babette, becomes attracted to Rawden. A fight ensues and Rawden kills her companion, Hilgard.
However, his emotions change when he learns Hilgard's mother was coming to visit. He realizes the purity of a mother's love. Rawden ensures that she hears nothing but good of her son, selling Hilgard's saloon to benefit her. Ultimately Rawden himself, although earning Babette's love, is touched more by the idyllic mother, believing God has been revealed to him.