Vintage original 8x10 in. US single-weight glossy photograph from the 1920's silent film western, DO AND DARE, released in 1922 by the Fox Film Corporation and directed by Edward Sedgwick. When
Henry Boone (Tom Mix) hears his grandfather's stories of his youth as a
pioneer and scout, he is gripped by the fires of romance and decides to hunt
adventure. Boone finds himself in an airplane carrying a military message to a
leader of a revolution in a South American country. He is arrested as a spy but
escapes and saves the ruler's (Jack Rollens) daughter (Claire Adams) from the revolutionaries.
The image features an exterior long shot of an intoxicated Henry Boone (Tom Mix), wearing a military outfit from a South American country, as he leads his horse down an essentially empty street as a group of other military men walk the opposite direction. On the verso is the original Fox Film Corporation credits stamp in blue ink. Printed on single-weight stock with a glossy finish, this vintage original photograph is in very fine- condition with random signs of light wear in the borders and a slightly rounded bottom left corner. The image quality is razor-sharp with very fine detail and beautiful contrast.
The
working titles of this film were A Kiss in the Dark and then Blood
Will Tell, as noted by the September 30, 1922 Moving Picture World. According
to a studio chart in the July 29, 1922 Camera, A Kiss in the Dark was
in its fourth week of shooting. Two weeks later, the August 12, 1922 Camera chart
stated that filming has ended. Reviewers did not like the film’s
story-within-a-story format or its change in tone, from dramatic to comic, when
the action switches from Old West Indians wars to a current Latin American
revolution. Both the September 24, 1922 Film Daily and October 14, 1922 Exhibitors
Herald critics enjoyed the first two reels of kidnappings, Indian attacks,
and standard Western fare, but lost interest thereafter, calling Do or
Dare “a tricky picture [that] lapses into farce-comedy of doubtful value,”
and Tom Mix’s “Henry Boone” character a “comedy role that is not at all
suited to him.”