Wild Oranges

Wild Oranges is a silent film from 1924. A sailor, John Woolford, who lost his wife in a carriage accident, and now travels the seas lonely (presumably he's filthy rich, or else we'd wonder why he's jobless) lands near an isolated house in Florida and meets a woman, Millie, who is living with her grandfather (a Civil War veteran) and is menaced by a neigbor Nicholas. Woolford and Millie meet and part, but he soon returns, because he's in love with her. The menacing neighbor turns out to have been a wanted killer. He kills Millie's grandfather and takes her captive. Woolford frees her (actually she frees herself, but he fights the killer) but in the struggle a lamp burns the house down.

The "wild oranges" in the title refers to the metaphor of wild oranges, which we are helpfully told by the intertitles are bitter when you first taste them but ultimately rewarding.


 * Bound and Gagged
 * Damsel in Distress
 * Defrosting Ice Queen / Romancing the Widow (gender reversed)
 * Informed Flaw: Millie is supposedly afraid of everything because of influence from her grandfather, who saw the horrors of the Civil War. It shows up mainly in one scene where she's suddenly afraid of the ocean, right after saying she wants to be free.
 * Twisted Ankle: Happens to the hero, who gets his foot stuck in a hole in the floor, loses his gun, and gets attacked by the killer.
 * Under Crank: The big fight scene is sped up.