The Desert Scorpion

The Desert Scorpion
Directed byOtis B. Thayer
Story byL. V. Jefferson
StarringEdmund Cobb
Production
company
Art-O-Graph Film Company
Distributed byArrow Film Corporation
Release date
  • January 15, 1920 (1920-01-15)
Running time
6 reels
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent
English intertitles

The Desert Scorpion (originally titled The Last of the Open Range) is a 1920 American silent Western film directed by Otis B. Thayer and starring Edmund Cobb and Vida Johnson. The film was shot in Denver, Colorado by the Thayer's Art-O-Graf film company.[1][2][3][4]

Plot

A feud between sheepherders and cattlemen heats up when the cattlemen set fire to the sheepherder's homes. The Sheepherder, who is in love with the Cattle Queen's daughter, leads a robbery on the cattlemen's bank. The Sheriff's daughter is impregnated and deserted by the Cattle Queen's daughter's fiancé. The sheepherders rescue her and abduct the Cattle King's daughter to nurse her back to health. The cattlemen track them back to the cabin where everything is revealed and forgiven. And the Cattle Queen's daughter falls in love with the Sheepherder.

Cast

  • Edmund Cobb as the Sheepherder
  • Vida Johnson as his daughter
  • Clare Hatten as the Cattle Queen
  • Otis B. Thayer as the Sheriff
  • Gretchen Wood as a sheepherder's wife
  • Zelma Edwards
  • Frank Gallager
  • A. E. McCormick
  • Dave Campbell
  • Babe Courvoisier
  • Fred Shafer
  • Lewis Milner

Crew

Censorship

Initially rejected in its entirety by the Kansas Board of Review, it was passed upon review with several cuts. The board required the elimination of several intertitles portraying the Sheriff's daughter as being "love sick" rather than betrayed, and to eliminate all references to her giving birth in the cabin.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "A Guide to Silent Westerns" By Larry Langman, Greenwood press 1992, page 116
  2. ↑ "Western and Frontier Film and Television Credits 1903-1995: Section I. Actors and actresses. Section II. Directors, producers, and writers" by Harris M. Lentz, McFarland, 1996, pages 169, 771
  3. ↑ "Eighty Silent Film Stars: Biographies and Filmographies of the Obscure to the Well Known" by George A. Katchmer, McFarland, 1991, page 144
  4. ↑ "The strong, silent type: over 100 screen cowboys, 1903-1930" by Buck Rainey, McFarland & Company Incorporated Pub, 2004, page 159-160
  5. ↑ "Kansas Board of Review Movie Index - Kansas Historical Society". www.kansashistory.gov. Retrieved May 8, 2026.
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