Richard Marshall, Arizona-born, is descended from great men of the past, but he is a bit of a fop. While vacationing in Monte Carlo, he meets several fellow Americans on a tour. The tour is run by Henry von Holkar. Marshall falls for Virginia Dale, one of the tourists. Unbeknownst to the participants, von Holkar is a diamond smuggler. He suspects Marshall is a secret agent on his trail and seeks to dispose of him. Meanwhile, the actual agent is trying to get the goods on von Holkar. The finale takes place in Arizona.
While today's audiences would probably revolt over certain aspects of this film (which I will get to), overall it's an entertaining romp. Fairbanks is fun to watch, and Ruth Renick is lovely. Beery, as usual, makes a great villain. The climax features some nice photography in the American southwest, and there is a well-staged avalanche. One film magazine reported that Fairbanks had been injured by a boulder while filming the scene. The stunts are held to a minimum, although there is a very good final brawl between Fairbanks and Beery (even though Beery manages to wear a suit through the entire ordeal). One rather interesting aspect of the film is an animated sequence (like a cartoon) near the beginning of the film, to provide some background to the plot. There are also some humorous moments. One occurs when Fairbanks gets caught in a fishing net, and almost gets his head chopped off with the other fish at a cannery. The guy working the cannery is wrester Bull Montana. Another funny moment is when Fairbanks tries to communicate with an Indian, using sign language. The Indian responds "what the hell you talking about?"
The Foreword expresses gratitude to the Hopi Indians "who, in their savage way heartily welcomed us to their prehistoric villages and with primitive cheerfulness played an important part in this picture." Whoops. The very next title card explains that "a mollycoddle is a body of man entirely surrounded by super-civilization." This made no sense to me, so I broke out Webster's dictionary and found that a mollycoddle is "an effeminate person." Whoops. Well, this was 1920. I'm not demanding this film be banned from the airwaves. It is certainly worth a look.
While today's audiences would probably revolt over certain aspects of this film (which I will get to), overall it's an entertaining romp. Fairbanks is fun to watch, and Ruth Renick is lovely. Beery, as usual, makes a great villain. The climax features some nice photography in the American southwest, and there is a well-staged avalanche. One film magazine reported that Fairbanks had been injured by a boulder while filming the scene. The stunts are held to a minimum, although there is a very good final brawl between Fairbanks and Beery (even though Beery manages to wear a suit through the entire ordeal). One rather interesting aspect of the film is an animated sequence (like a cartoon) near the beginning of the film, to provide some background to the plot. There are also some humorous moments. One occurs when Fairbanks gets caught in a fishing net, and almost gets his head chopped off with the other fish at a cannery. The guy working the cannery is wrester Bull Montana. Another funny moment is when Fairbanks tries to communicate with an Indian, using sign language. The Indian responds "what the hell you talking about?"
The Foreword expresses gratitude to the Hopi Indians "who, in their savage way heartily welcomed us to their prehistoric villages and with primitive cheerfulness played an important part in this picture." Whoops. The very next title card explains that "a mollycoddle is a body of man entirely surrounded by super-civilization." This made no sense to me, so I broke out Webster's dictionary and found that a mollycoddle is "an effeminate person." Whoops. Well, this was 1920. I'm not demanding this film be banned from the airwaves. It is certainly worth a look.