L.G. Rigby Movies

The Grain of Dust was based on the best-selling novel by David Graham Phillips. Lillian Walker plays Dorothy Hallowell, known as "the grain of dust" because of her questionable parentage and her tendency to drift in and out of trouble. Unfairly branded a "scarlet woman," the innocent Dorothy finally decides to live up to her billing and attempts to steal small-town lawyer Frederick Norman (Ramsey Wallace) away from his wife Ursula (Corinne Urzell) -- hardly a difficult task, since Frederick is hardly a paragon of virtue. But Dorothy is essentially a good girl, and her virtue is ultimately rewarded. The Grain of Dust was remade in 1928, with Alma Bennett playing the title character as a villainous predator. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Young Paramount stars Gary Cooper and Thelma Todd, the latter a recent graduate of the studio's acting school, starred in this otherwise average Zane Grey Western directed by studio hack John Waters. It was Waters who, having spotted young Cooper in a screen test, recommended the lanky newcomer for Arizona Bound (1927). That film was successful enough for Paramount to conjure up Nevada, in which a once notorious gunfighter takes a respectable job on a ranch. Cooper's "Nevada" is charged with protecting the ranch owner's pretty daughter (Todd), arousing the enmity of ranch foreman William Powell, who is in love with the girl. The villainous foreman leaks a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and the former outlaw is soon on the run again. But along the way, he catches a gang of cattle rustlers led by -- surprise -- William Powell. Thus rehabilitated, Nevada is free to marry lovely Thelma. Despite the strong cast -- in retrospect, at least -- Nevada was considered a rather weak entry in Paramount's long Zane Grey series and actually did little to further Cooper's career prospects. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Colonel Tim McCoy continued his string of successful historical Westerns with The Frontiersman, a muscular adventure set in 1813. John Dale (McCoy) and Abner Hawkins (Tom O'Brien) are members of Andrew Jackson's Tennessee Militia, assigned to make peace with the Creek Indian tribe in general and the treacherous White Snake (Frank Hagney) in particular. Dallying with the beauteous Athalie Burgoyne (Louise Lorraine), Dale is forced into dueling a rival (John Peters). Jackson (Russell Simpson) calls him in for a reprimand, and Dale falls instead for the general's pretty ward, Lucy (Claire Windsor). Jackson once again disapproves, but he changes his mind when Dale rescues the girl from the marauding Indians. Both Windsor and Lorraine had been elected WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1922 by the Hollywood publicists. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

The Family Upstairs is based on the same-named play by Harry Delf. The titular family is comprised of losers and layabouts, all except for the daughter, pretty Louise Hellor (Virginia Valli). When Louise falls in love with handsome Charles Grant (Allan Simpson), she invites the boy home for dinner to meet the folks. The evening turns into a disaster thanks to the rowdy misbehavior of the family in general and Louise's loud, abrasive mother (Lillian Elliott) in particular. But with the help of Louise's kind-hearted dad (J. Farrel McDonald), hero and heroine are ultimately brought back together. Prolific 1930s leading lady Jacqueline Wells (aka Julie Bishop) makes one of her first film appearances as Louise's snotty kid sister. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After several years' experience as a screenwriter, Howard Hawks made his directorial debut with Fox Films' The Road to Glory. Though based on a story by Hawks, the film that emerged bore little resemblance to the director's original concept. Judith (May McCoy) and David (Leslie Fenton) are a pair of jazz-age libertines who care about nothing but satisfying their own desires. After suffering an injury in a car accident brought about by David's reckless driving, Judith discovers that she is slowly but surely going blind. This tragedy convinces Judith that God does not exist, while a penitent David desperately tries to convince her otherwise. In an excessively melodramatic climax, David is seriously injured by a falling tree, whereupon Judith abandons her agnosticism and prays for her sweetheart's recovery. Not only does David survive, but all the excitement has completely restored Judith's eyesight! Whether or not Road to Glory measures up to Howard Hawks' later classics is open to conjecture, since the film no longer exists. (Incidentally, Hawks' 1936 war film Road to Glory was not a remake). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Thunder the Dog, one of the worthier rivals of canine star Rin Tin Tin, heads the cast of Wings of the Storm. Curiously, the plot is quite "human," with a cowardly, pampered German Shepherd becoming a hero when he's adopted by a rugged forest ranger (Reed Howes). The daring doggie not only rescues his former owner (Virginia Brown Faire) from an untimely death but also exposes the treachery of a villainous lumber-camp superintendent (Bill Martin). The climactic sequence, in which the bad guy unloads a supply of logs on the helpless hero and heroine, is the equal of anything ever seen in a Rin Tin Tin opus. Wings of the Storm was directed by John G. Blystone, whose gallery of cinematic collaborators ranged from Tom Mix to Laurel and Hardy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Universal luminary Herbert Rawlinson, whose star was on the wane by 1924, has the lead in this rather predictable murder mystery. Although Sheldon Polk (Rawlinson) is only a bank cashier, his extravagant ways reveal that his father is the man who owns the bank. Frank Farnsworth (Hayden Stevenson) wants to borrow 25,000 dollars from the senior Polk, and offers a 100,000-dollar necklace as security. Sheldon is given the task of taking the funds to Farnsworth, but he is robbed along the way. Meanwhile, his father is murdered and the necklace disappears. Because of circumstantial evidence, Sheldon is sent to prison, but he manages to break free (via a dirigible), and sets out to prove his innocence. It's an easy task to figure out that the real culprit is Farnsworth, who had put together the whole operation. Ruth Dwyer -- who is best known as Buster Keaton's leading lady in Seven Chances -- plays Sheldon's main squeeze, a girl by the name of Sunny Day. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

The team of Johnnie Walker and Edna Murphy starred in this old-fashioned silent melodrama about an evangelist who proves to be both a swindler and an adulterer. When a traveling crusader, Herbert Dawson (Richard Tucker), comes to town, he hires young Johnny Rowan (Walker) to be his treasurer. Unbeknownst to Johnny, the evangelist is not only a swindler, but the scoundrel who years earlier ran off with his mother (Barbara Tennant) only to desert her. When Johnny finally learns the truth from his fiancé, the local minister's daughter (Murphy), Dawson plans to have him murdered. The scheme backfires when Johnny's mother suddenly reappears and Dawson is himself killed while trying to skip town with the loot. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi