Bad Buck of Santa Ynez (1915)

BAD BUCK OF SANTA YNEZ  (1915)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: William S. Hart
    William S. Hart, Bob Kortman,
    Fanny Midgley, Thelma Salter
Early William S. Hart, with Hart as Bad Buck Peters, a troublemaker who hightails it out of town, chased by the sheriff's posse. On the run, he comes across a woman and her daughter in a covered wagon, stranded because the woman's husband has just died from prairie fever. Bad Buck knows he can't spare the time, but he kind of takes a shining to the kid, so he stops long enough to bury the old man and put the woman and the girl up in his shack. Then  he gets out of there just ahead of the sheriff. Then the sheriff and his boys show up at the shack, but when they see that Bad Buck's not there, they ride on back into town. Then Bad Buck gets out a knife and a stick and carves a wooden doll for the little girl. Then the girl goes down by the creek, where she gets bit by a rattlesnake. Then Bad Buck gets back and sees the girl needs help right away, so he rides off to get the doctor, even though that will take him back through town, where he doesn't want to go. Then he gets shot riding back with the doctor. Then he and the doctor show up just in time to save the little girl's life. Then, well, no, I'm not going to tell you everything, but maybe you can guess. Here's a hint: Hart's westerns didn't always end with the hero riding off into the sunset. And they weren't real big on subplots.