A revenant is a “visible ghost” returned to haunt the
living and in Nell Shipman’s case the spectre both inspires and amazes. This was a woman who not only overcame impossible
financial odds to make this film but who relocated her crew, cast and zoo to
the frozen wastes of Ohio before climbing 6,000 feet to film the climax in
which she dangles herself off a sheer rock face. DeCaprio you’re a wimp!
 |
| The hills are alive |
Nell’s spirit comes through in her written words and as
the above quote shows, she had a sense of humour to match her drive. She needed
it as this was the biggest risk imaginable for the “Girl from God’s Country”,
as she was named after two successful films featuring her battling the elements
of Ohio.
  |
| Nell Shipman: in the studio and out of doors |
The breathless finale was filmed atop Lookout Mountain –
at 6,727 feet the highest in the region and more than a couple of thousand up
on Ben Nevis, Britain’s champion peak – having to lug equipment up on the backs
of protesting pack horses. Honestly Nell, you could have picked an easier
location but no she went high and it is rewarded as the views make for a
stunning backdrop as she hangs onto a tree root on the side of a sheer cliff
face. It’s a stunning conclusion that sets the emotions and the pulse racing –
to all her other attributes add stunt-woman and her editing (who else) is
superb.
 |
| Nell hangs on tight |
As Nell later said: “…it
had a sockeroo finish! It brought to customers that dimple we aim to create so
it may cup their shed tears…”
The plot is how you hipsters say, “bat-dropping” crazy,
and shows Nell’s lively mind in overdrive creating an improbable world just
around the bend from our believable own. Nell plays Faith Diggs a woman who
combines work in an artist’s materials shop with life modelling and a home
laundry service.
  |
| Skipper watches the ships and waits... |
She does all this to care for her ailing father, a
retired mariner named Skipper (Walt Whitman – the other one) who spends his
days looking out of his window at the tall ships in the harbour. He puts his
light in the window to illuminate Faith’s way home and already you can see the
richness of Shipman’s ideas with any florid over-invention being
counterbalanced by a lightness of tone in the intertitles.
But Shipman’s acting provides the clearest signal of her
intent. She stands tall as the model wrapped in white cotton, standing as a
partially-exposed mummy in front of a class of eager scribblers, her face mock
serious yet soon gurning in horror as she has to shuffle out to deal with a
customer.
 |
| Bare shoulders! |
Bizarrely that customer is the film’s villain popped into
pick up some brushes and paint for a friend up in the Yukon – the script is
full of such long shots and intricate connections and this won’t be the last we
see of those brushes… Mark Leroy is a gambler and business man played by Alfred
Allen (who Wikipedia wrongly makes 36 at the time of the film when he was
actually 56 and he looks it!) but Faith can’t see that only a charmer who takes
an interest in her.
Faith loses her two art jobs after the proprietor returns
to find her bare-shouldered. She traipses the streets looking for work and runs
into Leroy again just as she is on the point of selling her improbably long
hair. He invites her round on the pretext of photographing said locks but when
she arrives she reveals they’ve all been chopped for cash. No matter, he didn’t
really want to take her pic… he has more business-like concerns.
 |
| Well, would you trust this man? |
Looking to make a new start for her and Skipper, Faith
jumps at Leroy’s offer of a “grub-stake” – an advance on adventure based on a
share of the returns, but rebuffs his attempts to take an early payback in
kind. They travel north by ship and in a moment of calm madness, faith accepts
a marriage proposal from the middle-aged manipulator… let’s say Faith is green;
let’s say she trusts too easily and that she has, indeed, too much faith.
 |
| Dawson Kate evaluates the greenhorn's fashion sense |
Reality bites once they arrive not once but three times… Leroy
provides Faith with a new dress and invites her to a “party” at the local dance
hall. The folk there are mighty friendly, especially the men but not Dawson
Kate (Lillian Leighton) the “he-woman” (according to the intertitle) who runs
the saloon with a rod of iron and a heart of rare softer metal. He soon reveals
to Faith that firstly this ain’t no party, secondly hubby already has a wife…
and thirdly Leroy has bought Faith here to trade as a sex-worker.
Overhearing the truth Faith is shocked to the core but
then she hears that Leroy’s set his manservant (Ah Wing) to poison her father…
 |
| Malamute Mike and his best friend |
At the start of the film we’re shown an old but intrepid
frontiersman atop a hill with his faithful hound but by the time we see the man
again he has become the town drunk, Malamute Mike (George Berrell) trailing around the string he used to tether
his four legged friend in the belief that old Tucson is still there. He’s
kicked out of the dance hall just in time to head to Skipper’s house and to
slow down the poison plot long enough for Faith to come to the rescue.
Leroy duly thwarted, the trio have to flee before he finds
out. Mike, drunkenly-deluded that he found some gold high in the mountains and
at the end of the rainbow… decides to take them there. They take Leroy’s dogs
and sleds and head for the frozen North.
 |
| Faith climbs higher |
Now Shipman’s love of nature takes over and there are glorious
segments in the snow. Faith has to forge on alone after their sled runs out of
snow and ends up going higher and higher, lost in the upper perma-frosts
forests as Mike goes for help from Kate’s son Jeb (Hugh Thompson), who lives in
their cottage practicing his art and is indeed the person for whom Leroy bought
the materials for right back at the start.
 |
| Faith discovers the bear necessities |
There follows an interlude in which Faith survives the
cold in just a linen shirt and winter dress, wandering lost until seeking
refuge in a cave already occupied with a friendly brown bear… The sequence
shows Faith communing with all manner of creatures – more bears, raccoon,
badgers, marmosets, deer and wolves. All are at peace with this gentle soul
although in reality the wolf sent to snuggle up as Faith sleeps, lunged at
Nell’s face and later had to be put down.
 |
| Jeb arrives from nature |
Spring seems to have sprung and one day as Faith sits
watching two bears play-fighting in the stream Jeb arrives and almost rescues
her before being told there is no need.
Now the stage is set as the two youngsters fall for each
other, Jeb spots Mike’s marker for the gold and they find his old dog still in
his old shack! Lots of things fall into place whilst the tension is ramped up
as Leroy comes looking for the girl and the gold!
 |
| Jeb and Faith bond over nature and the arts |
“Fact is, viewing
the scenario from the wrong end of time’s telescope, The Grub-Stake bears a
strong resemblance to a Soap Opera!” Nell Shipman
She was not wrong but the opera is well produced and the
soap not so soft once the action kicks in and a battle begins culminating in
that real-life cliff-hanger. Before that Shipman battles Alfred Allen in a
no-holds barred scrap that she looked like she could easily win.
  |
| Location shooting on frozen Priest Lake - same spot as the image at the top! |
The Grub-Stake
is packed full of Shipman’s determination and charm but whilst it initially did well its
distributor, American Releasing Corporation – who hadn’t even paid an advance –
went broke. Other, better, offers came in too late after Nell had signed the
deal – almost as green as Faith.
Nell again“…this
picture was a real grub-stake gamble for a proprietor who must strike it, must pan out!”
 |
| Y'see Leo... you have to work with the bear; don't fight it! |
Luckily British rights were secured – not that Nell saw
any of the money – which ensured that the BFI ended up with the only extant
copy. This was used by Idaho Film to create the From Lionhead Lodge DVD which
is part three of their Nell Shipman Collection which comes complete with
surviving shorts from the Little Dramas of the Big Places series and a short
documentary narrated by Shipman’s grand-daughter and great grand-daughter in
1987 – the family creative spirit lives on. There’s also a suitably homely
accompaniment from John Hayes and Eberle Umbach.
 |
| My Amazon Shipman shipment |
The disc is available sporadically from Amazon (I may have grabbed the last copy!) whilst there also an excellent biography by Kay Armatage,
The Girl from God's Country: Nell Shipman
and the Silent Cinema, from which I gleaned so much interesting background
and lifted the quotes above – also available from Amazon.
Watching and reading about Nell was another inspiration
from Silent Women: Pioneers of Cinema
Edited by Melody Bridges & Cheryl Robson and available from Aurora MetroBooks. It features much on Nell including a fascinating and exciting chapter
from film-maker Karen Day whose documentary on Nell I can’t wait to see in
full!
