An absolutely delightful movie that belies the bad reputation of (and public indifference to) all Charles Ray's films after his financially disastrous 1923 fling with "The Courtship of Myles Standish". Here with a far more capable director at the helm, a bright script and a first-rate support cast, Ray provides a most entertaining vehicle that provides an abundance of laughs and happy suspense from start to finish. (True, we are watching the expertly condensed 5-reel Kodascope version and it's more than possible that the missing 15 minutes or so may have caused the narrative to drag in places; but we have to take the movie as edited "to make the laughs come faster" as indeed they do!)
In fact, the movie starts with a great flourish in the middle of the very first reel when the hero decides to mail a letter. This prosaic proceeding for most people is here translated into a mad dash by our hero in an old jalopy, making a spectacular, jaw-dropping, near-miss effort to beat the speeding steam train to the railroad depot.
Ray himself proves most ingratiating throughout and is given excellent assistance by Jack Clifford as the obnoxious standover of an elder brother, the lovely Gertrude Olmstead as the sweet miss of the title, and J.P. Lockney as gout-ridden Pa. Plus Gertrude Short as a helpful chorus girl.
In fact, the movie starts with a great flourish in the middle of the very first reel when the hero decides to mail a letter. This prosaic proceeding for most people is here translated into a mad dash by our hero in an old jalopy, making a spectacular, jaw-dropping, near-miss effort to beat the speeding steam train to the railroad depot.
Ray himself proves most ingratiating throughout and is given excellent assistance by Jack Clifford as the obnoxious standover of an elder brother, the lovely Gertrude Olmstead as the sweet miss of the title, and J.P. Lockney as gout-ridden Pa. Plus Gertrude Short as a helpful chorus girl.
