Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

JLRVancouver One of the last silent westerns and William Hart's swan song, "Tumbleweeds" is about the settlement of the 'old west' and the end of the (largely mythical) 'cowboy' way of life. The closing shot of drifting tumbleweeds being stopped by barb wire fence pretty much sums up the film. William Hart is 'Don Carver', a drifter, a 'tumbleweed', who gets caught up in the 1993 Cherokee Strip land rush along with his sidekick, 'Kentucky Rose' (Lucian Littlefield). Typical of silent films, the acting is somewhat overly dramatic at times (except for po-faced Hart) but otherwise the film has held up remarkably well and, to some degree, reflects modern sensibilities more than many of the myriad westerns that followed (for example: the Indians Carver encounters are his friends and there are African Americans and capable, independent women in the race for homesteads). There are a number of very effective scenes, such as the countdown to the "maddest stampede in American History', the stampede itself, and shots paralleling Hart riding at full gallop that must have been challenging to obtain. The film is also quite comic at times, notably the ol' widder women checking out Kentucky's butt when he bends over or tough-guy Hart's faintness around women and his solution to a persistent cowlick before going a'courtin'. The biggest downside to the version I watched (on the "Silver Screen Classics" channel) was the score, which (IMO) was often intrusive and inappropriate to the scene. I don't know if other versions are available. Score aside, the film is well worth watching for its own sake, as well as for its place in cinematic history. Followed six years later by "Cimarron", a similar retelling of the great land race that was the only Western to win a Best Picture Oscar until "Dances with Wolves" in 1990.

lugonian TUMBLEWEEDS (United Artists, 1925), Directed by King Baggott, stars the legendary William S. Hart (1865-1946) in what proved to become his final screen appearance. Virtually unknown by today's standards, Hart was a popular leading cowboy actor dating back to 1914, whose success would be categorized as a sort of Gary Cooper or John Wayne of his day. Hart was versatile in other roles, but westerns were his specialty, with many, including Hart himself, ranking TUMBLEWEEDS as his finest of all his westerns.Opening title: "Man and beast – both blissfully unaware that their reign is over." Set in 1889, Dan Carver (William S. Hart), a range boss of the Box K Ranch, known as "just another tumbleweed," is introduced as a sympathetic cowboy who fails to shoot a rattlesnake only because it has as much right to be around as anyone else. He also takes in a couple of orphan wolf dog puppies to find them a home after their parent dogs have been poisoned. The plot develops as the United States Government allowing ranchers to graze cattle on their payment to the Cherokee Land Strip, 12,000 square miles of undeveloped prairie land between Kansas and Oklahoma. Riding to Caldwell, Kansas (population 200), on the edge of the Cherokee Strip, Dan spreads the news to its local residents. Journeying to his destination with "Kentucky Rose" (Lucien Littlefield), they encounter Mrs. Riley (Lillian Leighton), a widow woman with three children, who takes a liking to Kentucky Rose. After intervening with Noll Lassiter (J. Gordon Russell) for abusing a boy, Bart (Jack Murphy), and his dog, he forces the brutal man to apologize to both. Dan immediately bonds with Bart who now looks up to him as a father figure. However, after accidentally roping a young girl (Barbara Bedford) in a saloon, Dan soon learns that the girl, named Molly, happens to be sister of Bart and half-sister to the villainous Noll Lassiter. Because of his interest in Molly, Dan decides to settle down and stake out a homestead claim for himself, with the possibility of having Molly become his future wife. Noll, however, unwilling to overlook Dan's defeat over him, schemes with Benton, alias Bill Freel (Richard R. Neill), to have Dan put out of the way. They arrange in having Dave accused and arrested as a "sooner," which finds him being held prisoner inside a bull pen while the bad guys so as much as commit murder so they can legally stake the claim for themselves.Most circulating prints of TUMBLEWEEDS consist of a 1939 reissue from Astor Pictures introducing eight minutes of spoken prologue by William S. Hart himself where he talks about his "greatest picture" from his Horseshoe Ranch in Newhall, California. After listening to Hart's speaking voice, it is much regret that this once popular actor of the silent screen never starred in at least one talkie western, even possibly a sound remake to his greatest movie, TUMBLEWEEDS. Chances are had be proceeded in his career in talkies, he most definitely would have succeeded, even if later reduced to matinée cowboy star as Tim McCoy or Ken Maynard for example. However, this 1939 prologue is the one and only chance for viewers to get to hear him speak, through his wonderful tribute to both himself and the movie itself.Home video to TUMBLEWEEDS dating back to the 1980s either from Blackhawk or a decade later from Republic Pictures also contain the Hart prologue. Rather than the orchestral score with off-screen singing to title card songs, both video/DVD editions are piano scored by William H. Perry for the Killiam collection. Clocked at 77 minutes (not counting the prologue), it seems a shame that this and THE TOLL GATE (1920) to date have become the only two Hart westerns to have limited broadcasts on public television some decades ago. Considering that TUMBLEWEEDS is hailed as Hart's best movie makes one wonder if his other silent westerns are equally as good or even better? The films of William S. Hart deserve better recognition in movie history. At least TUMBLEWEEDS is still available (on DVD) to remain one of the finer westerns to come out from the silent movie era, along with being both an introduction and rediscovery to the great quiet-type cowboy hero named William S. Hart. (***)

barbb1953 The Netflix version of "Tumbleweeds" is the Paul Killiam version redone in the 1970s, and it has Hart's farewell to the screen. Sure, it's over the top today, but the man was a Shakespearean actor long before he started doing Westerns, and his other stage roles included that of Messala in, I believe, the original stage production of "Ben-Hur." He then, at age 48, didn't sit on his laurels but instead went into the physically demanding field of making Westerns, apparently because the current Westerns of the time didn't portray accurately the real Wild West he had grown up in; and he did some fine work there before finally retiring.After all that, if the man wanted to pull out all the stops in his final farewell, more power to him! Some of "Tumbleweeds" is a little hokey (the singing and some of the plot developments, for example), and Hart's acting seems a little wooden today (although it does convey an inner strength that helps his character get through physical trials, like that long hard ride in the land rush), but the authenticity grabs your attention in spite of that. Right at the start, for instance, it seems as though they are showing film of a 19th Century cattle drive. The interiors are very realistic, too, as are the vehicles, costumes,and mannerisms (I love the way Barbara Bedford reacts when Richard Niell puts his hand on her shoulder -- quite in character with those times and quite a contrast to the mores of 1920s America, let alone modern times).The land rush scene is very famous and has been copied a lot, but it still is terrific to watch, particularly the way Hart works the story line into it.I really enjoyed Lucien Littlefield's performance, too (Kentucky Rose, Hart's sidekick). It takes a lot of skill and hard work to look that "stupid" and yet carry the plot along so well: it is so easy to overact and turn it into a farce. Littlefield walks the line but always stays on the right side of it and is very funny and yet also touching (the secondary romantic plot). This was the first role I noticed him in (though he was in "Sons of the Desert," too -- I don't remember him in that). He worked a lot. The Wikipedia entry for him notes that his years of activity were 1914-1960 (the year of his death). Not too many other actors had such a long career.Kentucky Rose would be considered very politically incorrect today, as would (NOTE: there be spoilers ahead!) the shooting of a snake, but there are some very positive things in "Tumbleweeds," too: rescuing two wolf pups and describing the debt the cowboys owe them because they poisoned their parents; apologizing (sort of) to the snake after killing it; showing African-Americans present in the land rush crowd; and presenting Indians (presumably Cherokee) in a positive way, as Hart's friends (though that sign language discussion seems a little long-winded and overwrought, given what they're actually saying).Speaking of sign language, this is the first silent film I've seen that doesn't leave much dialogue to the audience's imagination. Everything is spelled out carefully in the titles, and I think that shows it was aimed at a very specific demographic and not necessarily the same one, say, that Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., was reaching for with his costume dramas at the same time.The filming is also very straightforward and a little rough. Having just watched "Hangman's House" (1928), I couldn't help contrasting the land rush scene here with the horse race in Ford's film, which is very "arty" in comparison. In both films, horses rush at the camera, but the image and its effect on the viewer are very different. One approach is not better than other, of course; each technique fits the film in which it occurs, but it's interesting to note that even in the 1920s, there were different audiences to be catered to.It's also interesting to note that this "rough" film stars a Shakespearean actor while Ford's "arty" film stars a former bare-knuckles boxer (Victor McLaglen) and is also famous today as being the first movie in which a former USC football player, John Wayne, can be clearly seen on camera.Hollywood, especially in the early years, is full of delightful little surprises like that.

joeyhernandez51 Tumbleweeds has been said was the end of an era,maybe so in the silent sence.True it is that the westerns of Hart,Mix,Gibson,Anderson,Caray and others were over,but there styles were not. Western Stars that followed such as Tim McCoy,Tom Keene,Ken Maynard,Bill Boyd and others followed in the Tradition of Good over Bad.They lived by the Code of the West,they rarely drank,never drunk treated women with upmost respect,and use a gun only as a last resort .However the had a certain demeanor that when a scene ocurred they became part of the whole picture,not as a HOLLYWOOD STAR,but as a true cowboy who througt his actions was to become a HERO ,not because of his six-gun ,but because of his courage and honor. All these qualities what made William S. Hart the true heroic,but humble cowboy.That is why Tumbleweeds is a true classic in the way Hart faced with such obstacles never wavers ,even taking the time to help an elderly couple still after risking his life at every turn gives the claim to the young lady and her brother.Yes it was an end to an era,however it was the making of a true cinema Western classic.