I Am the Law

I Am the Law is a 1922 American drama film starring Alice Lake and Kenneth Harlan, and featuring Noah Beery, Sr. and Wallace Beery. The movie was written by Raymond L. Schrock based upon a 1910 story by James Oliver Curwood, and directed by Edwin Carewe. Curwood successfully sued Affiliated Distributors to have his name taken off of the film as he felt it did not resemble his short story, a result next achieved 70 years later when Stephen King successfully sued to have his name taken off of The Lawnmower Man. It is not known whether the film currently survives, which suggests that it is a lost film. Plot The plot, as described by the defendants in the 1922 court case regarding the attribution of the Curwood story: Two brothers were members of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police at the little settlement of Paradise. One, Corporal Fitzgerald, was counted the best man tracker in the north and a credit to the Mounted; his younger and weak brother, Tom, private, had often been reprimanded for misconduct (by the commandant), and at the time the story opens he was carrying on a secret affair with the wife of the commanding officer at the post. The corporal had learned of it, and reproved his brother, but Tom defied him. A school-teacher, Joan Cameron, in traveling through the forest, had been caught in a storm, and had taken refuge at the notorious dance hall conducted by a half-breed Chinaman, who was pressing his advances upon her when the corporal arrived and killed him. After rescuing the teacher, the two encountered Tom, who made love to her and won her promise to marry him. The corporal, who had fallen in love with her, resigned in favor of his younger brother and wished them well.