Bad Buck of Santa Ynez (1915) User Reviews

The good bad guy!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 12 January 2018]

Broncho Billy's chief (and far superior) rival, William S. Hart, is well represented on DVD. In addition to his epic westerns, Hart also directed and acted in shorts. One of the best is the 1915 Bad Buck of Santa Ynez, an early example of Hart's typical bad guy with a strong redemptive streak.

In this one, the redemption is brought about by a woman who has just lost her husband and her little daughter who is bitten by a snake. Hart rides hard for the doctor even though a posse is on his tail. The Alpha DVD's quality is poor but it's watchable.

The same might be said for another Alpha entry, Knight of the Trail (1915) in which bad man Hart decides to go straight after marrying Leona Hutton. Unfortunately, just before the wedding, Leona uncovers Hart's secret, so she runs off with the real bad through-and-through villain, Frank Borzage (yes, the famous director).

Not brilliant but well worth seeing if you like older silents

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 20 June 2011]

Bad Buck is a jerk. He treats the Sheriff like dirt and runs amok in town until the residents decide to hang him once and for all. At the same time, a pioneer family is decimated when the dad dies--what are they to do? Well, when Buck escapes he comes upon the family and risks everything to care for them.

In context, this is a decent William S. Hart western, though I am sure that if many watch it today they'll be a bit put off by the overly simplistic plot. Just remember that in 1915, full-length films were mostly quite short and rushed--subtlety was not really seen very often. So, when Bad Buck acts like a jerk and only seconds later they are trying to hang him and when the pioneer dad dies and Buck then adopts the family, it's all very rushed but necessary in such a short film.

Some positives for the film are a moderately engaging plot and an ending that was NOT clichéd and predictable. Some might dislike the downbeat ending but I loved it---as it sure caught me by surprise.

Decent Hart Short

[Michael_Elliott · 16 March 2011]

'Bad Buck' of Santa Ynez (1915)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent two-reeler has William S. Hart playing outlaw 'Bad Buck' Peters, a cold-blooded man who has tormented the people of Santa Ynez. The sheriff finally captures him but before they can hang him Peters heads off into the wilderness. Once he reaches freedom he meets a woman and her young daughter who is just about to bury her father. They plead with Peter to take care of them, which he agrees to do and once the girl gets bitten by a poisonous snake Peters must then select his freedom or risk it by returning to town for a doctor. BAD BUCK OF SANTA YNEZ has way too much happening in such a short amount of time and in the end there's just way too much melodrama that prevents the film from being better. The biggest problem is that the film asks us to believe that such a ruthless man would give up his freedom to help these women for no reason. It then seems even harder for us to believe that he would eventually fall for the two ladies so quickly. We've never given a reason why Peters would do this and it's not even in his character early on. When it does happen we're still not given any reason as to why he's changed his mind. Outside of this we've got a fairly good little Western that gets a major boost by the authentic locations and Hart's direction helps keep the film moving at a nice pace. At just around 24-minutes there aren't too many slow moments and it goes without saying that the legendary Hart was born to play a character like this. I also enjoyed Fanny Midgley as the mother and Thelma Salter as the child.

Crystallizing the Hart-Ince Western Formula

[briantaves · 15 October 2011]

"BAD BUCK" OF SANTA YNEZ, released in May 1915 (and reissued in later years as THE BAD MAN, REVOLVER BILL, and A DESPERATE CHANCE), was directed by Hart from a story by J.G. Hawks and Thomas Ince. The movie exemplified the Hart formula crystallized under Ince, as I outline in my Ince biography. The story begins as the father of a family of pioneers is struck down with fever. Bad Buck Peters (Hart), the local terror, especially enjoys ridiculing the sheriff, but must escape town. On the road, he meets the family: a widow (Fanny Midgley) beseeches him to bury her husband, but it is the entreaty of the child (Thelma Salter) that moves Buck. Her need will reverse his lifelong penchant for misdeeds. While scenes of the pursuing posse are tensely crosscut with Buck performing the burial, he brings the desperate family with their wagon to his cabin. When the girl is bit by a rattle snake, Buck rides to town to fetch the doctor, knowing the sheriff will be gunning for him. He gets the doctor to the cabin, and the girl will be saved, but Buck crawls to her side as he expires. His villainy has been expiated, but also punished; there is nothing more for the posse to do.

Wm. S. Hart in his familiar character

[deickemeyer · 3 January 2020]

A two-reel Western number, featuring Wm. S. Hart in his familiar character as a bad man. The most dramatic scene is where the child of the nester's widow allows a rattlesnake to strike her on the bare leg. Thelma Salter proved herself a very brave little girl in this scene: to some the feature will be repulsive but it makes a fine example of Western realism. The desperado sucks the wound and then risks his life in going for a doctor. He is in fact mortally wounded in carrying out this action. A strongly realistic number. - The Moving Picture World, May 22, 1915