Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

kidboots .... with such heavy make up, J. Frank Burke looks like a snake oil salesman from a wild west show. Also, like "On the Night Stage", players are initially introduced from the stage and sporting evening clothes which then change to wild west attire. I have a feeling it was to give players credibility - even at this stage movies weren't the most respectable form of entertainment and westerns were an even bigger step down. More a case of "yes, I know this is a western but I'm really from the stage - I'm respectable, don't you know"!!! And the performers had every reason to think that way. "The Bargain" is a terrific movie and really moves quickly - but in 1914 critics weren't having it!! "Moving Picture World" thought it "weird and a reckless attempt to revive a genre we hoped was a thing of the past"!! Little did they know the genre was only beginning. Hart was credited with being the founder of the "real West Western" and together he and Thomas Ince soon revived their popularity."The West - Where Man stands face to face with his soul". A typical Hart title - here he plays "Two Gun" Stokes who after a botched stage coach robbery finds himself wounded and on the run in Badlands territory. He finds shelter at the Brents and during his convalescence falls in love with Nell but when they marry a couple of cowboys who are roped in as witnesses recognize him from the wanted pictures. Once he decides to go into town to return the money so he can start married life with a clean slate the action really picks up. He is captured and handed over to the sheriff who takes the money for safe keeping and then decides to pay a visit to the gambling tables!! Within an hour the Sheriff has lost the money but Jim, who is still tied up, proposes a bargain - his freedom, in return for the recovery of the missing money.There are some ruggedly realistic scenes - the flight to evade the posse and double back to the sheriff's room takes Stokes to the edge of a precipice where he and his horse roll down the cliff. It is very harrowing to see the horse fall down the sandy dune but fortunately the horse recovers quickly and trots off. There is also some beautiful location photography of Arizona's Grand Canyon. Clara Williams was often paired as Hart's love interest in these early years, she had a very home spun, westerny look about her but after marrying director Reginald Barker she soon retired and was never tempted to return.

briantaves William S. Hart had already had success in adapting his own memories into a stage persona that convinced audiences, and he was now determined to bring it to the screen. He believed that his old stage friend Thomas Ince, now a producer, had promised to personally direct him and provide him the best stories. As I outline in my Ince biography, and from the outset their relationship was rocky. In May 1914, Hart began to appear in two-reel shorts directed by leading man Thomas Chatterton, a novice director. His Hour of Manood was the first, taking 12 days to film on a budget of $8,000, and the filmmaking process left Hart uncomfortable. He felt equally discouraged when, the day after finishing His Hour of Manhood, he began his next movie, Jim Cameron's Wife.Both pictures were released in July, and Ince was ready to assign Hart to a similar role of the same kind. Hart threatened to return to the stage instead, and Ince was persuaded to allow him to try a more "authentic" story. Ince recalled a two-reeler, Getting His Man (1911), and suggested it might be expanded. Five days later Hart returned with a treatment that included a synopsis of the first fifty scenes, and it was turned over to C. Gardner Sullivan.Hart's personal note of authenticity in the resulting movie, The Bargain, is apparent from the opening credits, when the major players are all introduced, bowing between curtains as they fade to be seen in their costume. Unlike the other male leads, Burke, Sherry, and James Dowling, only Hart's visage is not obscured behind heavy makeup. The viewer is left to conclude that only Hart is what he seems—he needs no false whiskers or wig to be a man of the West.The movie opens with dime novel prose that would seem to be at odds with its ostensible realism. A\"The West! The Land of Vast Golden Silences Where God Sits Enthroned on the Purple Peaks and Man Stands Face to Face With His Soul." A pan of Grand Canyon vistas follows; the June 11 to August 5 shooting schedule for The Bargain included a location trip. Telegraph intertitles reveal the setting is in the year 1889.The Bargain establishes the pattern of the character types, trajectory, and conflicts which would become the Hart persona. He is the daring outlaw Jim Stokes, a self-sufficient two-gun man first seen rolling a cigarette. His devil-may-care confidence allows him to rob even a well-guarded stagecoach alerted to his presence in the area: he sets up hats and rifles behind boulders and convinces the escort that his confederates are watching them. But once he leaves with the money chest, the guards realize the ruse, pursuing Stokes into the badlands and wounding him.Found by prospector Phil Brent (Sherry), Stokes is nursed back to health, winning the love of the prospector's daughter Nell (Clara Williams). They are unaware of Stokes's criminal past. While not losing his courage and resourcefulness, love has brought about a moral reformation, and Stokes determines to return the money to the stage company. Meanwhile, reward posters cause him to be recognized, and he must flee to the border town of El Tempo, Arizona. He sends his horse back with a note for Nell, which is intercepted by her father, who keeps the truth from her.In El Tempo, the opening pan of the Grand Canyon is echoed with a long circular shot, giving a similar sense of verisimilitude. This time, however, instead of the clean vistas of nature, the audience is drawn into the corrupt din of the saloon. Sheriff Walsh (Burke) corners Stokes in the hotel and ties him up, then telegraphs to claim the reward. Waiting for the stage, the lawman proves just as susceptible to temptation as the outlaw. Drawn to the roulette wheel, and unaware that it is Afixed,@ he soon loses his money—and in a desperate bid to win it back, gambles the stage funds with the same result.When Walsh confesses to Stokes, he can only laugh at the irony. However, he makes a bargain to save both of them. He steals the money, giving it back to the sheriff, who lets Stokes go. He returns to Nell to confess his past. Momentarily hesitant, she decides to follow him to Mexico. Stokes signals to Walsh, waving his hat, signaling that he is safely away.The Bargain, released in five reels in December by Famous Players-Lasky, became Hart's first hit, although he was billed after Williams and Sherry. It would be reissued under the Paramount banner, this time with Hart starred first. Another feature of similar length for Ince, On the Night Stage, was begun by Hart the day after completing The Bargain, in which Hart was fourth-billed after Robert Edeson, Rhea Mitchell, and Herschell Mayall. Despite the billing, Hart was already advertised as "the most talked of Motion Picture Actor to-day (His wonderful work in The Bargain will go down in the history of Motion Pictures) ...."

wes-connors After being wounded in a shoot-out, steely-eyed outlaw William S. Hart (as Jim Stokes) is found by prospector J. Barney Sherry (as Phil Brent). Mr. Hart lies to his rescuer, "I was chased by Indians and one of them got me," and is brought back to Mr. Sherry's Arizona cabin. There, Hart recovers from his wound, and falls in love with Sherry's pretty dark-haired daughter Clara Williams (as Nell Brent), who nurses him back to health. Reformed by love and marriage, Hart decides to return the money stolen before he was injured, but he is arrested by Sheriff J. Frank Burke (as Bud Walsh)..."The Bargain" is struck between Hart and Sheriff Burke, who loses the recovered money gambling - if Hart will help him get the money back, the Sheriff will let Hart go free. Variations of this intriguing moral/amoral storyline would be repeated in subsequent Hart features - a few were better, and more than a few were worse; "The Bargain" got there first. The Thomas H. Ince production benefits from the Arizona location photography (shot in the Grand Canyon) by Joseph August. The unusual opening "credits" were not original, but they seem like a perfect introduction to the picture.****** The Bargain (12/3/14) Thomas H. Ince, Reginald Barker ~ William S. Hart, J. Frank Burke, Clara Williams

Cineanalyst William S. Hart had already honed his acting and Western credentials on the stage. "The Bargain" was his first feature-length film, and the basics of his usual formula are already present. Hart is the "good bad-man", who is reformed once in the presence of a pure woman. The prototype for the "good bad-man" had already been introduced to the screen by "Broncho Billy" Anderson, but from what I've seen from these two, Hart far surpassed his predecessor. It's easy to see why Hart was so successful; his acting is more restrained than that of the other players. (Clara Williams is okay, too, though, and starred in other Hart films.) His worn face allows him not to stare into nothing in an attempt to convey emotion, as others do here.There's crosscutting action, too, with outdoor shooting. At that time, filming outside is preferable for everyone: it's cheap for the studios, especially so with Westerns, and the camera is, theoretically, freed from the missing wall and cramped space of studio sets. The beautiful landscape is more prominent and overwhelming here than in later Hart pictures. Yet, oddly, the most virtuosic shot happens inside: a one-minute panorama within a saloon.