Watch Your Step (1922)

If the character Cullen Landis plays in this action-packed comedy seems to have a touch of Charles Ray's spirit, it's because Ray's longtime scenarist, Julien Josephson, wrote the story. Elmer Slocum (Landis) has a passion for fast driving. As soon as he completes a jail term for speeding, he's at it again, rushing a doctor to an emergency call at a hair-raising 85 miles an hour (cars really weren't built for that kind of speed in those days, so it really was hair-raising!). He winds up wrecking his car and knocking down a policeman who has pursued him. He thinks he has killed the cop, so he flees. A group of tramps steal his clothes, and in this sorry state -- and even sorrier bum's outfit -- he lands in a small midwestern town. He falls in love with Margaret Andrews (Patsy Ruth Miller, who would be voted a WAMPAS baby star later in 1922), the daughter of the town's richest man (George Pierce). Naturally, neither Mr. Andrews nor Margaret's other suitor, Lon Kimball (Raymond Cannon), think much of Slocum. A detective arrives and captures Slocum, just as he has admitted to Margaret that he killed a policeman. But the detective was sent by Slocum's father (John Cossar), who was looking for him. It turns out that the cop is not only alive, he went back to work the next day. After that it is easy enough for Slocum to put Kimball to route and win his girl's hand. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi