All the Brothers Were Valiant, directed by Irvin V. Willat, starred Malcolm MacGregor as Joel Shore, Billie Dove as Priscilla Holt, and Lon Chaney as Mark Shore. The film was released in January of 1923 at seven reels, and is presumed lost.
Plot: Mark Shore sets out aboard the “Nathan Ross,” and says goodbye to his brother Joel and Joel’s sweetheart Priscilla Holt.
Joel is the last of a long line of able seamen of the House of Shore. Priscilla feels that Joel is not the man his brother is.
Mark departs from the “Nathan Ross” in the Gilbert Islands, and disappears. Asa Worthen, owner of the ship, offers Joel the captain’s position. Joel accepts, and marries Priscilla.
Priscilla accompanies Joel on a voyage south, but soon grows bored. When the crew capture their first whale, the smell of boiling blubber sickens her. The ship reaches Cape Horn, and the crew puts in to the island of Tubuai for food and water. There, they are stunned when Mark appears.
Mark tells Joel his tale. He had been drinking gin one night and had wandered away from the ship. He had met up with a group of islanders and had taken part in their festivities. He took up with a native girl.
Before he knew it, the ship had sailed away without him. Then a party of pearl fishers had tried to steal his girl. Mark had climbed aboard their ship, killed a man, and remained on board. By the time the ship reached its destination, Mark had killed the other two men who were on board.
Then he had buried what pearls were on the ship, and whatever pearls were found on a nearby island. Natives had attacked him, and his girl was killed attempting to save his life.
He had taken the pearling schooner to Tubuai and learned that the “Nathan Ross” was in port.
Now Mark wants Joel to help him get the pearls, but Joel refuses.
Joel had promised Worthen he would never endanger his ship, and their business was whaling, not pearl fishing. Mark calls his brother a coward. News of the pearls soon spreads about the ship, and the crew begin to mutter. Mark makes a play for Priscilla, and she is amazed when Joel does nothing about it.
Mark, along with the first and second mates, demand that Joel turn the ship around and go for the pearls. When Joel refuses, they lock him in his cabin.
Eventually, there is a revolt on the ship. Joel punches Mark in the jaw. The crew members fight. Mark is reformed by his brother’s show of courage, and goes to his side. During the battle, Mark falls overboard. Joel leaps into the water after him, but is unable to save his brother. Joel returns to the ship, where order has been restored. The report of Mark’s death is entered in the ship’s log, where Priscilla underlines the first word of the statement “All the Brothers were Valiant.”
The cast spent time aboard a whaling ship named the “Carolyn Frances,” and an actual whale hunt was filmed. Billie Dove wrote a letter to her friend, Myrtle Gebhart, describing her experiences aboard ship (if you are squeamish, you can avoid this part): “We eat with the crew,” Dove wrote, “in the so-called “mess salon” – my dear, such a whale smell! It doesn’t mingle well with that lily-of-the-valley perfume that you gave me before I left Hollywood. … The crew of our boat, mostly Norwegians, get $100 for every whale they bring into Trinidad, so you can imagine how keen they are when the harpooning begins. … When the whale saw us, he made an awful fuss, diving and blowing and leaping forty feet in the air. The gunner stationed at his gun mounted on a platform in the bow pulled the trigger releasing the ninety-two-pound harpoon which carried in its head a nine-pound charge of shrapnel. The first shot drove in the harpoon but slightly and away went Mister Whale. With our engines set at half speed, he towed us forward at the amazing speed of ten miles an hour … then the gun was reloaded, and the second harpoon pierced the side of the whale, and the shrapnel exploded, killing him.”
Dove is shown below, looking far from glamourous. In the second still, showing the crew of the “Carolyn Francis,” she is at the center of the group, with Malcolm MacGregor to her right and Lon Chaney the fourth person to her left. In the final still, she is shown with director Irvin Willat:
Exhibitor’s Herald called the film “an exceptionally interesting story of the sea, one that is well told and full of unusual detail. The sea stuff is particularly well handled and a splendid cast enacts the various roles.”
The Film Daily called the film “a delightful, adventurous tale of the water that contains all the elements of popular appeal consistent with the type of entertainment which it offers,” adding “Billie Dove photographs very well and is a pleasing heroine. Lon Chaney give his usual splendid performance.”
Exhibitor’s Trade Review wrote “here is a story that will send real thrills up and down the spine. … It is one of the best sea pictures that has come on the screen recently and should give entire satisfaction wherever shown.”
Motion Picture News praised the scenes involving whale hunting, writing “one of the most interesting features of this extraordinary picture is the introduction of a whale hunt. Get this straight. It is the real thing. There are real whales. Harpoons are fired into the mammoth bodies of these monsters of the deep and at one point we see a man jump from the boat onto the back of one of them and send a long spear home.”