The Bluebird brand had a high reputation, even though the pictures were made rapidly and cheaply ­ like most of the Universal product, the films were intended for the undemanding audiences of rural districts. The reputation of Bluebirds extended even to Japan, where they impressed many of the country’s new film-makers. Richard Harding Davis was a prolific writer of adventure stories, and dozens were made into silent films. Many had a patriotic slant ­ this one involves Paul Revere, the celebrated revolutionary, who warned the colonists “the British are coming!” in the War of Independence. Chaney, playing twice his age (he was 34 at the time), is almost unrecognisable. Jospeh De Grasse, and his writer-director wife Ida May Park, encouraged him in these roles and they had a highly successful run, making more than 60 pictures together for Universal. De Grasse had a punchy, energetic style, with bold close-ups and sharp cutting. His brother Sam, a member of the D.W. Griffith stock company, was cast as a crooked banker. The previous year he had played in Intolerance. Howard Crampton had had a prominent role in Universal notorious shocker Traffic in Souls. 

George Loane Tucker, 1913

Franklyn Farnum was no relation of either William or Dustin Farnum, although Universal¸s publicity department pretended he was. His real name was William Smith. He was the first example in pictures of the little-known actor taking a famous name ­ later came Richard Talmadge and William Fairbanks. Farnum played in Westerns and serials throughout the 1920s, reverting to character roles in the 1930s.

Kevin Brownlow, Photoplay Productions