Jewels of Desire (1927) Reviews

Priscilla Dean made a name for herself in the silent era by playing lady crooks for Universal. By the mid-'20s, however, her star was fading fast and she was acting in low-budget independent films. Here she plays Margarita Sloane, a book agent who discovers that she is heir to her uncle's estate. She goes to his rancho and finds it is next door to a graveyard. From that moment on, a number of strange things happen. An Indian squaw (Marie Percivale) shows up with a chest containing the dead man's "legacy." Lawyer Maclyn Mills (John Bowers) arrives to inform Margarita that there is a mortgage on the property, but he is able to translate a piece of parchment she finds. It's a map to some buried treasure on an island. The map is promptly stolen by a tattooed man named Pedro (Walter Long). Margarita and Mills arrive at the island to find that Pedro and his cronies are already there. The men find the treasure, and Pedro tries to double-cross them. Margarita takes the jewels herself and Pedro goes after her. Both of them fall off a cliff into the shark-infested waters. A shark devours Pedro, while Mills rescues Margarita. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi