MARIE WALCAMP: THE DAREDEVIL OF SILENT MOVIES

MARIE WALCAMP (1894-1936) – Like her fellow silent film icons Douglas Fairbanks and Buster Keaton, Marie Walcamp did most of her own stunts. This earned her the nickname “the daredevil of the movies” as she dazzled audiences in serials, westerns and other action films.

Walcamp also appeared in other types of productions, of course. Among her earliest roles she played the younger version of the female lycanthrope in the 1913 horror film The Werewolf, reviewed previously here at Balladeer’s Blog.

Marie’s final appearance came in a supporting role in the movie In a Moment of Temptation (1927). The talented figure became prone to depression over the years and when her husband was out of town one day in 1936, she committed suicide by turning on the gas in their residence. Her ashes were scattered on the Universal Studios back lot per her request.   

Below are some of Marie Walcamp’s milestone films and serials.

TEMPEST CODY – Marie was already getting above the title billing by the time her two-reel Tempest Cody western shorts came along in 1919. Tempest was a hard-riding, two-fisted, straight-shooting woman of the old west who was always on the side of right.

TEMPEST CODY HITS THE TRAIL (September 1st, 1919) – One of the many, many silent films which has not survived, this kicked off Universal’s Spur and Saddle package of westerns.

TEMPEST CODY FLIRTS WITH DEATH (September 8th, 1919)

TEMPEST CODY RIDES WILD (September 15th, 1919) – Tempest becomes the sheriff of a wild west town where life is cheap.

TEMPEST CODY’S MAN HUNT (September 23rd, 1919) – Tempest lassoes an infamous rustler, but the two of them wind up dangling from her lariat above a deadly drop.

TEMPEST CODY PLAYS DETECTIVE (September 29th, 1919)

TEMPEST CODY GETS HER MAN (October 6th, 1919) – A no-good hombre fakes the sell of a ranch to Tempest Cody, then adds insult to injury by rustling some of her cattle. Our lady isn’t having it. 

TEMPEST CODY TURNS THE TABLES (October 13th, 1919) – When the local sheriff resigns in shame for failing to catch a masked bandit, Tempest pins on the badge. A lovesick man keeps proposing marriage but she keeps refusing as she sets out to nab the bandit AND winds up saving a falsely accused innocent from a lynch mob.

TEMPEST CODY BUCKS THE TRUST (October 20th, 1919) – Miss Cody helps poor honest people in fighting food speculators who are so ruthless they even resort to the attempted destruction of a huge storehouse.

TEMPEST CODY, KIDNAPPER (October 27th, 1919) – When a slick talking lothario runs out on her friend Beulah, Tempest Cody tracks him down and takes him back to town at gunpoint. When it turns out to be the wrong man Tempest is accused of kidnapping. The final Tempest Cody short.

THE JUNGLE QUEEN (May 15th, 1915) – Marie stars as Mary Dirke, daughter of a big game hunter in Africa. Mary loves animals and has an extensive menagerie at her and her father’s South African estate. Evil hunters wanting animals for zoos and circuses back in the U.S. show up, wanting to seize Mary’s exotic animals and big jungle cats. Marie and her well-trained menagerie fight back for some lively action.

A DAUGHTER OF THE JUNGLES (July 31st, 1915) – When Colonel Price from the U.S. returns to Africa on another safari he learns that his daughter, played by Marie Walcamp of course, is still alive after being abducted in the jungle nineteen years earlier. She is now “a daughter of the jungles” in she-Tarzan garb. Marie winds up saving her father and his rescue expedition from jungle menaces and goes back to civilization with him in the end.

CAST ADRIFT IN THE SOUTH SEAS (May 30th, 1914) – Hawaii was presented as being as wild as Africa in this production, so I’m counting this as one of Marie’s jungle adventure flicks. She stars as a woman set adrift by a dastardly villain. Winding up in the hands of a tribe in Hawaii she saves the chief’s son and is accepted. Her adventures reach their height when her adopted tribe wars on another.   

FROM THE LION’S JAWS (March 14th, 1914) – Alma (Walcamp) and her father are living in Africa, where she trains her pet elephant so well he becomes her devoted protector. The pachyderm saves her life when she is menaced by lions and tigers, despite the fact that tigers live in India, not Africa.

LIBERTY, A DAUGHTER OF THE USA (August 20th, 1916) – A 20-episode serial with Marie in the title role as Liberty Horton, a tomboyish, butt-kicking American heiress. She gets kidnapped by a Pancho Villa pastiche called Pancho Lopez who demands a large ransom for her return; a ransom he will use to finance his revolution. Liberty survives a series of cliffhangers to prevail in the end.

THE RED ACE (October 22nd, 1917) – A 16-episode serial in which Marie played Virginia Dixon, who becomes involved in western intrigues mixed with oddball elements like a Native American version of a Sasquatch/ Ape Man. There’s also railroad intrigue, shootouts and the kind of stunts that made Marie Walcamp stand above the other serial ladies in efforts like The Perils of Pauline and The Exploits of Elaine.

THE LION’S CLAWS (April 6th, 1918) – Marie starred as Beth Johnson in another thrilling serial which found her in action from the desert to the jungle while making Indiana Jones himself seem pretty pale by comparison. Beth faces villains and stock serial pitfalls like mechanized deathtraps, descending ceilings with spikes, pyramid robbers plus 1918 tanks. Before Lara Croft, there was Marie Walcamp! Walcamp’s countless stunts with wild animals resulted in her being scarred by one of the lions in this 16-episode production.   

THE RED GLOVE (March 17th, 1919) – No footage has survived from this 18-episode serial which found Walcamp in the Old West as Billie, a gunslinging heroine taking on an outlaw called the Vulture.

THE DRAGON’S NET (August 23rd, 1920) – A 12-episode serial in which Marie’s character Marie Carlton took on Fu Manchu style villains in the Far East. Our heroine is on a quest to obtain eight golden lotus leaves which hold the secret of eternal life. Another production which has not survived.

FOR MY SIMILAR LOOK AT THE SILENT FILMS OF ACTRESS THEDA BARA CLICK HERE.

FOR MY SIMILAR LOOK AT THE SILENT FILMS THAT THE GREAT SARAH BERNHARDT LIVED TO MAKE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CLICK HERE.