Film Friday: «The Winning of Barbara Worth» (1926)
Directed by Henry King, The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) begins with a woman (Vilma Bánky) burying her husband in the desert. She and her young daughter, Barbara (Carmencita Johnson), then get back in their covered wagon and continue to head West. At the same time, Jefferson Worth (Charles Lane) and his party — which includes Tex (Clyde Cook) and Pat Mooney (Erwin Connelly) — are also travelling West. They all run into a violent sandstorm and try to take cover. Once the storm clears, Mr. Worth and his companions find Barbara clinging to her dead mother in the sand. Mr. Worth decides to adopt the girl and raise her as his own daughter. Fifteen «sun-parched» years pass and Barbara Worth (Vilma Bánky) is now a grown woman beloved by her childhood friend, Abe Lee (Gary Cooper), a young engineer who surveys the desert with his father, Henry, the Seer (Paul McCallister). Mr. Worth wants to build a dam on the Colorado River to bring irrigation to the vast arid land he owns. To ...