You should witness 'Shep's Race with Death'

Shep's Race with Death (1914)
Starring: Shep the Dog, Marion Fairbanks & Madeline Fairbanks [as the Thanhouser Twins], J.S. Murray, M. Whitcove, and Marie Rainford
Director: John Harvey
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Although they are identical twins (Fairbanks and Fairbanks), who have similar personalities and ways of behaving, their grandmother (Whitcove) hates one and loves the other... and she's not shy about either emotion. When the beloved sister lashes out at the grandmother for the mistreatment of her sister, the grandmother convinces their mother (Rainford) to separate the sisters by leaving the hated one with the father (Murray) while leaving with the beloved one away to live at their grandmother's house. But the separation of the sisters and the broken family is only the beginning of the misery and danger.

Shep was a Rough Collie who helped set the mold for heroic dogs like Rin-Tin-Tin and Lassie. He headlined 14 films from 1912 to 1914, and in "Shep's Race with Death", he shares the screen with the "Thanhouser Twins", a pair of girls whose brief film career overlapped with his. The twins were actually Madeline Fairbanks and Marion Fairbanks; their joint screen-name was derived from the production company for which the majority of their films were made. Born in 1900, they appeared in roughly 45 short films between the years of 1912 and 1916. They also had successful stage careers before, during, and after their time in movies, performing both in musical theatre, variety shows, and plays.

As for "Shep's Race with Death", the girls and the dog make great onscreen companions. The affection they show for Shep, and visa-versa, seems genuine, and the scenes where they are playing with each other or otherwise interacting are some of the best parts of the film. (As it should be, since Shep has top billing...)

Another strong suit of the film is that it wastes no time getting started, keeps a breakneck pace throughout, and never gives the viewer much of a chance to notice the overacting that comes with the melodramatic genre to which this film belongs. Despite the swift pace of the film, we're even given a denouement that wraps up the film perfectly while showing off the strength of its stars performing together.

All that said, the film's breakneck pace also works against it. It's confusing that the parents of the twins just fold without any objections or questions when the nasty mother-in-law insists on breaking up the household and making the twin she likes and the wife (her daughter) to come live with her. Perhaps this, one of the greatest intertitles ever made, and which amused me to no end, is so true that they didn't dare stand up to her?

Could the mother-in-law have brought more doom and misery to the household beyond breaking it up? Is that why the parents fold so easily? The film doesn't take the time to explain this, so maybe it's not something that would have crossed the minds of 1914 viewers, but it's a point that bothered me. It also bothers me that there's no resolution of the plotline involving the nasty mother-in-law. She just sort of vanishes from the story and we never see what reaction she might have to the family reuniting happily after the "race with death" of the title. Maybe, before racing with death, Shep pushed the evil mother-in-law off a cliff, or maybe the Dad or the Twins got together and somehow disposed of her? 

Whatever the case, it's something the film doesn't deal with, and I think it might have been stronger if it had. (Sometimes, with films of this age, all we have are fragments, so it's possible there was originally a scene or two that dealt with the mother-in-law later in the film. I find this to be unlikely, since the running time of the version I viewed matches all the running-times listed for this film I've been able to find. I think, in this case, the mother-in-law vanishing is just bad storytelling. 

Despite its flaws, I think that, if you enjoy silent movies, you'll find the quarter of an hour it'll take you to watch "Shep's Race With Death" to be time well spent. Click below and sit back. (And if you feel so inclined, share YOUR opinion of the film in a comment to this post.)