The Calling of Jim Barton

Jim Barton grows up in a household shadowed by worry, his mother constantly anxious about his behavior. One night his father surprises him trying to break into the family strongbox, and after a stern reprimand Jim slips away under cover of darkness. He leaves a note telling his mother he will not return, and the household is left reeling from loss and shame. The family leans on the younger brother, who steadies the parents with steady honesty. The film tracks the aftermath of that decision, focusing on family bonds, regret, and the choices that follow a rash act, and it presents moral contrasts in a straightforward Western.

Released in 1914, The Calling of Jim Barton was created and directed by Gilbert M. Anderson, an early Western filmmaker, and features a cast including Anderson, Daniel P. Kelleher, and Evelyn Selbie in silent era roles and period production values.

Box office records for many 1914 short features are scarce, and no reliable gross figures survive for this title, so its commercial reach is uncertain beyond distribution in regional theaters and from period trade reports that remain in archives today.

As an early Western, the film reflects familiar moral contrasts and maternal concern that reappear in later genre works, and while it did not leave a quoted line or shot, it contributes to silent era body of Western narratives and offers historians a look at family drama in frontier settings.

Contemporary reviews are scarce and modern ratings are sparse, but the story foregrounds parental worry, sibling virtue versus waywardness, and the moral consequences of temptation. Its straightforward staging and character focus make it a study in early cinema moral storytelling rather than action driven Western spectacle of the silent period.