He Won a Ranch

He Won a Ranch was filmed in Jacksonville, Florida, at the Jacksonville unit of the Lubin Manufacturing Company, under the supervision of Arthur Hotaling.^[2] It was a short split-reel comedy, lasting approximately 5–6 minutes, and sharing a single reel of film with a second, unrelated comedy, Her Horrid Honeymoon, featuring Mae Hotely and Jerold Hevener.^[1] The films were released by the General Film Company on May 19, 1914.^[2]

He Won a Ranch included one of the earliest screen appearances of Oliver Hardy. Although the film itself does not survive, and he is not mentioned in any advertisements or reviews, Hardy can be seen, dressed as a cowboy, among the extras in a publicity still reproduced in The Lubin Bulletin.^[1][2]

The film was not well received by the trade papers. Moving Picture World wrote "This is a comedy; at least it is advertised as such, but it fails to fulfill its ultimate pretensions. Horseplay pertains throughout, and not very good horseplay at that."^[3] The New York Dramatic Mirror was particularly unimpressed by the plot, which was one of several devised for Lubin comedies in 1914–1915 by vaudeville critic Epes W. Sargent: "The idea runs so very unoriginally in the rut of thousands of precedents, that it fails to elicit many laughs, or to be underlain by any appreciable amount of humor. Jerold Hevener, Raymond McKee, Ben Walker, and James Hodges are the cast who also do their best, aided by a number of hard working seconds, but all to no avail with the plot as written."^[2]

• List of American films of 1914
• Oliver Hardy filmography