Synopsis
Tom is attracted by an actress. When she and her company arrive at his ranch, he tries to attract her attention.
Sage Brush Tom
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Wild West of Movie Fan Culture
“Sage Brush Tom” (stage brush?) is a historically and reflexively interesting one-reel Western from silent film cowboy star Tom Mix. In it, he plays an Arizonian movie fan who purchases a postcard photograph of an actress, writes her a letter, and later tries to get her autograph. Back East, the actress and her fellow filmmakers mock the letter. Appropriately enough, the movie studio is Selig Polyscope, the very makers of this film, and the cast and crew are ordered to go West to produce Westerns—something the studio was really among the first to do, founded in Chicago but the first to establish a studio in Los Angeles.
So, Tom meets the actress, proceeds to…
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Wild-west action is sidelined here, in favor of light comedy, Tom Mix rhe cowboy interacting with a film crew that are making a picture on his ranch. There's a lot of content related to the still-novel concept of 'fan culture,' something that had only recently emerged in the new media landscape. (With possibly a touch of prescriptive social engineering, encouraging the film audience to form fantasy-construct 'relationships' with fillm stars of their choosing...) (If that mechanism wasn't already solidly in place...)
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Tom buys a postcard of an actress. He writes her and tells her of his affection. In Hollywood, she laughs at his letter and shows it to her friends. Then her company goes to Arizona to make a movie. She runs into Tom (literally). The leading man gets jealous of Tom's manliness. He tells Tom that any actor can wrestle a bull.
The weird thing about Sage Brush Tom is how the story fizzles. None of the storylines pay off. Tom doesn't end up with the girl; in fact, she pretty much disappears from the end of the picture. Also, Tom doesn't end up getting the better of the uppity Hollywood crowd. The film just ends.
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Dear Miss,
Saw your picture in a moving picture. Sure do like you much. Wish I could see you.I’m surprised how few Selig films are on Letterboxd!
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Cowboy Tom gets the opportunity to meet the actress he has a crush on when she travels west to make a movie and ends up acting in a movie after decking her leading man. A very slight, forgettable short with some mild humour.
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Cowboy Sagebrush Tom (Tom Mix) sends his favorite movie actress (Goldie Colwell) a fan letter and he's shocked when shortly afterwards she shows up at his ranch. It turns out that her studio has sent her there to make Western pictures but the leading man (Ed Brady) decides to have some fun with the love struck cowboy.
SAGEBRUSH TOM is a pretty entertaining film that manages to mix some slight romance with a pretty bitter comedy. I'm not going to give away the ending but you have to give Mix credit for willing to embarrass himself as this character is pretty much a loser and gets made fun of from the start of the picture to the end. Of course,…
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Tom Mix is very cute but this doesn’t have much to offer. Maybe if more horseback riding had been involved?