Tumbleweeds (1925)

William S. Hart plays a tough and laconic cowboy--the sort of guy who loves the life and has no desire to settle down and get a place of his own. However, he meets a pretty lady (Barbara Bedford) and immediately decides that marrying and settling down is a GREAT idea. So, as the Oklahoma land run is about to commence, he decides to take part in this insane opportunity to get a homestead.Let me digress a bit to explain. In 1889, a law was signed that opened up 2,000,000 acres of land in Oklahoma to settlers. However, instead of signing up for it to stake your claim, they literally staged a race--where folks rode like crazy into the open land and grabbed a marker. Then, upon returning it to the government agent, they'd be given that particular parcel. And so, if you wanted the best land (such as along a river), you had to be fast--or cheat (these folks was given the nickname 'Sooner' because they went in BEFORE they were officially allowed).What Hart does not know is that the lady's half-brother is trying to cheat in order to get the best land AND he sets up Hart to make it look like he's trying to be a Sooner instead! Can William manage to expose this jerk AND still win the sister's love? Like so many of Hart's films I have seen, Hart is a rather quiet fellow who lets his fists do the talking. He is NOT some pretty boy and he seems to look more like you'd expect a real cowboy to look. While this is not among his very best films, it's well made and talks about one of the most forgotten parts of US history--the land runs. Worth seeing.By the way, the copy I had was silent but had musical accompaniment that was added later.

I enjoyed the actual film Tumbleweeds, but I'm restricting my comments here to Hart's famous farewell speech to his fans that prefaces the movie.I have seldom seen or heard anything as moving as that speech. Yes, there are moments when it verges on becoming unintentionally humorous to a more cynical modern audience. Yes, Hart is highly dramatic, and very much the old time barnstorming actor that he had been before beginning his movie career. It is a heightened type of performance that is out of sync with the age we live in, and some viewers have described it as somewhat embarrassing to watch.But none of that matters a bit. Hart's unquestionably sincere emotion and heartfelt expression of his feelings about the old days of movie making are so powerful that I can't watch this sequence without being moved to tears every time. There's one part where he has to pause for a moment before continuing, when he gets choked up over the memories of a beloved horse. The sheer, raw spectacle of such intensely personal feelings might well be too much for jaded modern audiences, and therefore might inspire embarrassed laughter.But the sad dignity of the old actor transcends such scorn, and raises the speech to an unforgettable experience that every old movie fan should see at least once.

I can see how one would be sentimental over William S. Hart's last Western, especially considering Hart was such a sentimentalist himself. But, his prime was years ago, with such films as "Hell's Hinges" (1916), "The Narrow Trail" (1917) and "Wagon Tracks" (1919). "Tumbleweeds" is far removed from those Hart vehicles. Hart had done away with his patented good bad-man persona; here, he's a gentler and fatter, goofy but good-natured, old cowboy. Hart also gets a dimwitted comedic sidekick, unfortunately. The filmmakers, first, attempt some romantic imagery, which generally fails, and, then, aim too much for humor, with lots of buffoonery. This new style probably reflects Hart's attempts to emulate the new B-Western shoot-em-ups, which had been surpassing his more adult Westerns in popularity by attracting a large audience of young boys.The villains suddenly impose a more dramatic tone to the second half of the film, and lead it to its inevitable conclusion. The fatality of the open frontier in the story mirrors that of Hart's career, but rather than the evident passion and romanticism one gets in his earlier pictures, we get song title cards. Additionally, Hart is competing for a civilized woman here, rather than for his Christian soul. At least, it's nice to see a more friendly, if brief, treatment of Native-Americans in this Hart outing. And, Hart does have one more exciting, well-edited horserace climax in him, but it was definitely time to hang up the saddle.

William S. Hart makes a moving speech before the movie begins, creating in us a feeling of nostalgia for the old westerns. In the film he is a cowboy that together with all the people that live in that strip of land, has to abandon it for it will be distributed to newcomers.After a certain date no person can enter that area, if they do they will be arrested, and will be called "sooners". All the people are waiting for the moment to come, in a small town, including Hart and his side kick, and Hart falls in love with the half sister of the villain. There is a big contrast in the film between the scenes that show the town, the newcomers, the rush, which are all excellent, with the incredibly naive scenes with the villains. It is hard to believe a film could be so good in certain moments and look so primitive in other scenes, good thing is that those scenes are a small part of it.