The Indian Runner's Romance (1909) User Reviews

Claim Jumpers

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 3 March 2017]

A Sioux warrior gets a wife after he suddenly is given a valuable claim by a dying prospector. He brings valuables to her father and the two are now married. But their life is interrupted by a group of thieves who kidnap the woman. When her husband's finds out, he is in hot pursuit. He has no horse, so he must run after the men who have bound his wife and thrown her over the saddle. It is obvious these Indians have little power when it comes to getting help. This is a minor effort by Griffith.

Colourful Characters

[Single-Black-Male · 23 June 2004]

There doesn't seem to be any chemistry between the characters in this eleven minute offering. The protagonist is a one-dimensional neurotic who can't seem to control his emotions. He is overly emotion rather than emotionally unstable, meaning that he is overly playing the part instead of bringing some humanity to the role. There doesn't seem to be any humour in this short film which is something that you need to pull you through the lull periods of a story. The love interest lacks credibility. I believe that there was a potential romance there that could work, but the horizontal protagonist and poor directing hindered any progress that the love interest could have had.

The Indian Runner's Romance review

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 11 May 2020]

Action-packed short from Griffith in which a Native American brave goes after the villainous cowboys who stole his squaw. A lack of intertitles makes it a little difficult to follow, and some brief scenes seemed to be out of sequence on the print I watched, but an enjoyably energetic film nevertheless.

The beauty of this picture cannot he described

[deickemeyer · 21 December 2014]

A Biograph picture having as its scenario the Black Hills in 1867, just about the time of the discovery of gold there. The principal actors are a couple of Sioux Indians, a man and a woman, the man wooing the maiden with the blanket, signifying protection, and securing the consent of her father by presenting him with a quantity of valuable blankets and wampum. A dying miner tells him of the location of a rich claim. Three cowboys undertake to secure the secret from the Indian, hut fail. Alter the wedding they attempt to extort it from the squaw, hut failing in that they abduct her, treating her with extreme brutality to force her to divulge the location of the mine. She is carried away, thrown across the saddle like a bundle The Indian returning home and finding her gone, divines the reason and sets out in pursuit. The fight between the Indian and the renegade cowboy on the back of a galloping horse is vivid and exciting. The cowboy finally falls dead from a knife thrust. The Indian and his bride return home together. The beauty of this picture cannot he described. The reproduction of outdoor scenery is so good that it seems as though one were actually in the woods and fields. There is a convincing quality about the acting which appeals very strongly, and as the climaxes are reached the attention is riveted closer and closer. There is plenty of action in the picture, while the staging and the accessories are made as true as it is possible to determine them. The costumes of the Indians are perfect reproductions of those actually worn by the Sioux. The effect is artistic and so attractive that one wants to see the picture more than once. No higher praise could be bestowed upon it than this. - The Moving Picture World, September 4, 1909