A Loyal Deserter (1913) User Reviews

French Leave

[boblipton · 5/10 · 8 July 2016]

Jack Nelson wants compassionate leave to visit his mother. When his commanding officer, Lafe McKee, refuses, Nelson heads off anyway and learns of a plan to assassinate General Grant in this Selig film.

With the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil War going on, that conflict was a hot topic for film makers, culminating in Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A NATION. There were a few rules that had to be obeyed. Paramount among them was that the rebels could not be shown as villains, since that would lose them the Southern market; the North did not care, since they had won, but you could not make fun of Lincoln. Grant was a safe individual, since his victory over Robert E. Lee meant he was a good fighting man, even if he was a lousy president.

This movie combines a nice dose of sentimentality with some good battle scenes, but the pacing is rather slow, even for the era. It is worth noting the presence of Lafe McKee in his second year of acting. He worked steadily until 1948, with a later specialty in villainous roles in westerns. If you wish to see this movie, it is available in a good transfer on the Eye Institute site on Youtube.

Film wrongly identified by EYE

[kekseksa · 6 October 2016]

The reviewer here is clearly discussing a film he has not in fact seen. There is film in the archive of the EYE institute that claims to be "A Loyal Deserter" but it is not, nor has the plot anything to do with a soldier taking leave to visit his sick mother nor does it have anything to with the assassination of Grant.

For what it is worth, the EYE institute film is about a Federal Lieutenant called Allen who is sent on a mission but wanders across enemy lines and (wounded seemingly) takes refuge with Louise, the daughter of a Southern plantation owner. He is exposed however when he refuses to salute the Southern flag and is tracked down by her brother and cousin and arrested as a spy. Meanwhile Louise goes to work as a nurse with a Confederate field-hospital. A desperate battle ensues with Louise's brother Robert on one side and Lieutenant Allen, who has escaped and rejoined his regiment, on the other. Nurse Louise arrives on the battlefield to find both men wonded in the battle. They are not, as Eye suposes dying - this is a US film not a Russian one -but the happy ending is missing (deliberately?) on the EYE version.

This is not the only film rather carelessly misidentified by EYE (see my note on Lost Illusions). It is in fact another Selig film, 1861 (reidentified with the invaluable aid of David Eickemeyer).