Wikisource:WikiProject Film/Drafts/Archives/The Chechahcos
User: M-le-mot-dit
File: The Chechahcos (1924).webm
Author: Lewis Hembree Moomaw
Publisher: Alaska Moving Picture Corporation
Year: 1924
PD: PD-US|1980|film=yes
Note: A 1924 American silent adventure drama film about the gold rush days in the Klondike, and the first full-length motion picture filmed entirely in Alaska. It was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress.
Cat: Adventure film, Silent film
00:01
THE ALASKA MOVING PICTURE
CORPORATION
Austin E. Lathrop, President
PRESENTS
"THE CHECHAHCOS"
(The new comers)
Made entirely in Alaska
Pathe, Physical Distributor
00:14
Story and Direction by
LEWIS H. MOOMAW
Production Mgr. GEORGE ED. LEWIS
Sets and Lighting GUERNEY HAYS
Photographed by
HOBORT BROWNELL and
RAYMOND JOHNSON
00:25
A White Dominion—lonely—unfathomable—
00:50
Glaciers are great mountains of ice—impassible—constantly pushing toward the water's edge where tremendous blocks, millions of tons in weight, sluf off with a sickening roar
01:05
It was a whisper that echoed "'round the world" and started an epochal stampede. Fired with the faith of fools, thousands poured madly into the treasure trail.
01:49
Everything had to be packed. A bank clerk carried his pen, a barber carried his chair, but if you were a boiler maker?
02:25
To lengthen this human chain, ill-chosen ships sped northward in 1897 with their cargoes of eager Chechahcos.
[Note: "Chechahcos" an Alaskan word meaning tenderfoot.]
03:14
"Stow the family album, Dad, and think about the fortune you're going to take back."
03:41
"Horseshoe" Riley—an old timer around mining camps, who hated two things—women were both of them.
… William Dills
03:52
Bob DexterAn adventure-craving young engineer who was due to have that craving glutted to the limit.
… Albert Van Antwerp
04:01
BAR
04:06
"Them lambs handle a pan like they was mixin' a drink—they'd be lucky to find gold in a mint."
04:18
Goto-Dust
04:30
"I'm goin' to grab a grubstake, teachin' them the A. B. C.'s of gold pannin'."
05:07
"Sure it's gold—the kind you're goin' through hell for."
05:59
Mrs. Stanlaw and her child had been swept along with the mad fever that had overtaken her husband, a young college professor.
… Miss Eva Gordon
… Baby Margie
06:33
"One would think them jays was already millionaires, the way they're spendin' money on them painted biddies."
06:51
"—and when there glaciers moved on, they left the gold exposed. It only remains for us to pick up the larger nuggets and return home."
07:15
"Careful, son—they'll all trim you if they get the chance."
07:28
"Would you please tell my husband I'd like to see him."
08:39
"She's awful. Let's get the professor's wife to sing again."
08:55
STEWARD
09:13
In those frenzied times speed meant more than human life.
09:51
"She's got all the steam she can stand."
10:25
♪ "Mid pleasures and palaces tho' we may roam—" ♪
10:55
♪ "—be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." ♪
11:12
"She's the professor's wife."
11:17
Richard Steele was one man going North who didn't expect to dig his fortune from the ground.
… Alexis B. Luce
11:36
"Come on, old kid, give us a lively tune for a change!"
13:24
S. S. RELIANCE
14:39
"I wouldn't be scared if my mama was here."
14:51
Marine history of that Northern coast is rife with the tales of disastrous wrecks.
15:04
But the survivors all joined the eager army at Chilcoot Pass where they pressed on to a blizzard-beaten crest.
15:35
There was only one who would have gladly turned back except for an insistent yearning.
16:10
"If the young engineer is alive our best chance to find him is at Lake Bennett."
16:32
It was not in the gambler's plans to tell Mrs. Stanlaw that her baby was being sheltered in the very camp they were leaving.
17:28
MAMA
18:05
"Riley, it's kind of nice to be a—a mother."
18:20
Being a "mother", however, has its trying moments. Riley was glad little Ruth wasn't "twins".
19:48
Beaver Camp marked the first lap on the way to the Klondike.
20:16
"This is Pierre's cabin—we'll stay over here."
21:20
A good-night kiss.
22:00
"How can I ever thank you for your kindness?"
22:06
"By permitting me to call you—"
22:14
"Margaret."
23:48
The "Chilcoot" was ruthless—it dared the strong and crushed the weaklings.
24:33
"Got his feet froze up at Beaverand don't know yet they're got to come off."
25:01
"Saw the kid's mother with that gambler Steele, but didn't get a chance to talk to her."
25:36
"Riley, if that mother is on ahead, it's our duty to find her."
25:48
"Maybe so—but it's darn funny she's gallivantin' around with a tin-horn gambler."
25:58
"We're not sure of that"
26:09
After "mushing" the trail for eighteen hours.
26:41
"Wait here 'til I find a warm place for the kiddie."
27:47
"Sorry I disturbed you and your lady friend—"
27:57
"Huntin' quarters for the night—reckon I came to the wrong place."
28:17
"It's too bad we have to travel with that scurvy crowd."
28:53
"Margaret—you need someone to protect you against it allyou need me!"
29:06
Winter made its sullen retreat—the ice in the Yukon moved down to the sea.
29:51
And the reindeer came up to browse along the warm slopes of Mt. McKinley.
Note: This is the first filming of Mt. McKinley, highest peak in North America.
30:31
The eager army converged on the shores of Lake Bennet, building crude boats that were to carry them to the "Eldorado of their Dreams".
31:07
W6X
Ruth
31:19
KEEP IN A
COOL-DRY PLACE
31:57
"She's ready—and some boat, too."
32:04
"Yep! But God help some of them poor devils—they think they're buildin' boats when they're only buildin' coffins."
32:30
SALT
33:55
Sour-dough bread, bacon, beans, rice and hard-tack was the menu, when you put in your stomach what you packed on your back.
34:14
"I'll give her plenty! Do you want her to grow up to be a midget?"
35:07
"Them beans certainly add a nice flavor to the salt."
35:24
Across the lake and down through the treacherous White Horse Rapidsa death trap to many a goldlured Chechahcos.
36:35
Riley finally did some plain talking to his young partner.
36:44
"You must be wrong—"
36:50
"Maybe—but I saw a plenty that night at Beaver Camp."
37:12
"And we've been trailing her like a pair of sapheads when she didn't give a—"
37:38
Of the many who harkened to that "Whisper" only the few were chosen to reap. With the years the makeshift gold-pan gave way to the hydraulic mining—"Alaska was discovered".
38:01
Dexter and Riley had named their mine "The Golden Girl", for the girl more precious to them than all the yellow dust on the Bonanza
38:50
The dozen years in the open had scarcely changed the partners. But Ruth had grown to sweet young womanhood.
39:43
"Pretty good for a couple of sour-doughs."
39:50
"Heap big talklittle do."
40:19
Ruth.
… Gladys Johnston
41:21
The land lay beneath its white coverlet, and the crisp air welcomed its lovers to the open…
42:45
"I'm glad you're back. Bob's inside, frettin' his life away."
43:04
"The poor calf's been tryin' to tell me all day. Go in an' show him how it's done, child."
43:55
"No longer your little girl, but your—"
44:19
"You gettum papoose—me taken care of."
44:26
Where the creek showed pay dirt a town grew nearby. Such was Mason, nine hours by dog-team from the "Golden Girl Mine".
44:49
The Dance Hall was a part of a gold-born town—it served both for business and pleasure.
45:04
No longer were they Chechahcos, for the breath of the Yukon has transformed them into lonely sour-doughs, eager to taste the wine of happiness.
45:29
A man, known as "Cold Steele", had lately acquired the "Miner's Rest".
46:21
Steele, recognizing Dexter, saw trouble looming.
46:32
"Get these supplies and load the sled."
47:16
"They call her the 'Nightingale'—she just came in with the new owner."
48:20
"The drinks are on you, boys."
48:53
"To the Nightingale!"
49:07
Dance Hall girls received their pay in percentage checks for inducing men to buy drinks and dances. Ten drunks made it a profitable evening.
49:47
"You remember meplease came where we can talk."
50:06
Mrs. Stanlaw told her story—it was not all pretty—yet there was a tragic note in her recital which troubled Dexter's conscience.
50:21
"I couldn't believe my baby waswas drowned—I wanted to stay"
50:31
"What else was left for me to do?"
50:37
"Just tell me she is alive"
50:55
"If I told you she was—what then?"
51:04
"Oh, I love my baby—I'd do anything—I'd promise never to see her."
51:21
"When we learned you were with—him—we told her you weredead."
51:39
"Don't worry—I'm not trying to steal your woman."
51:51
"So it was you who knifed me on the boat! I've got a hunch that rumpus isn't finished yet!"
52:37
"Pierre ees good hand with dogs—you give me job?"
52:45
"We'll start soon as the supplies are ready."
53:13
A woman of the Dance Halls.
53:19
Came a blinding blizzard with the remperature sixty below…
54:44
"You save my life so I tell you—Meester Steele he hire me to keel you"
54:52
"Tell the skunk I'm coming back to thank him!"
55:41
"Don't worry, Honey—Bob's mushed through worse storms than this."
57:29
"I've got to get warm."
57:34
"Sure—Minnie's bringing enough coal oil to thaw the chill out of an iceberg."
58:24
Throughout a long Arctic night, fighting that demon which chills the bone and cooks the flesh—Frost.
59:02
With the morning came relief and the story of the meeting with Ruth's mother.
59:22
"I thought about it out in the snowwould she have gone with him if she'd had her child."
1:00:19
"Figurin' from what you've said, Bob, I'm thinkin' we might have made a mistake."
1:00:33
"Maybe I should have investigated more the time I found her with the gambler at Beaver Camp."
1:01:38
"Zee storm et get him jus' same, 'cause I find zee dogs."
1:02:02
"The next time you muddle thingsremember!"
1:02:19
A cry from the spirit—that hour when man must face the tribunal of conscience.
1:02:46
"God forgive me, if I've done what ain't right!"
1:03:03
The Mail Carrier.
1:03:59
promise. To Know that
my little Ruth lives
has given me courage.
I am leaving Mason
so that she may
never learn the
fate of
Her Unhappy Mother.
1:04:24
"She's going out to the Sates and says to give these to the girls."
1:05:37
"So you're going to leave me because you found out about your brat."
1:05:46
"Yes! You cheat! Liar! You've known where she was all these years."
1:06:11
"—and here's something to tell that engineeryou're mine—and going to stay mine!"
1:06:28
On a pretext of mining business, Dexter and Riley depart for the town of Mason.
1:08:38
"The Miner's Rest" claimed the street crowd, for the "Nightingale" was singing her farewell song.
1:09:27
It was a mother's call that echoed to the girl—her mother—alive—and then a panic haste to reach her before it was too late.
1:10:59
"I'll look after heryou attend to Steele—"
1:11:57
A short cut to the dangerous glacier trail.
1:15:12
"Me an' my pardner have talked it all over."
1:15:37
"So you've come back to thank me, eh?"
1:15:43
FIRE
1:15:46
And nothing to fight it with but snow!
1:16:08
"By the time you're well toasted, I'll be out on the Dyea trail."
1:16:41
Fear hastens Steele's get-away.
1:17:03
Dexter rushes for his dogs.
1:17:18
The first flush of Dawn found Dexter hanging grimly to Steele's trail, determined to bring him to justice.
1:18:35
Lostdazedunaware of the danger in venturing onto the glacier.
1:22:07
Steele makes for the glacier edge where he believes Dexter will fear to follow.
1:23:30
Crashing, crumpling, roaring—an ever moving mass of ice.
1:26:50
The End
Alaska Moving Pictures Corporation
Anchorage, Alaska