John Carroll has served his sentence for manslaughter, so sidekick Art Smith picks him up so they can collect the million dollars in gold dust they stole. However, Barton Maclane wants it all, so he follows them to Arizona, where Smith has hidden it in an abandoned mine. Land Office clerk Howland Chamberlain cuts himself in, Meanwhile, Carroll heads up to a direly poor Mexican village in the mountains for manpower. There they think he is a miracle man, blessed by their "Blue Lady".
It's a close-run affair. Even though you watch this knowing that Carroll will come out all right and get the girl, Adele Mara, it's never clear how. Co-director Allan Dwan and Phil Ford cast a lot of Mexican actors, including Thomas Gomez and Alfredo Bedoya in large and sympathetic roles, and get some fine actors to fill in the minor ones, including Grant Withers and the ever-ancient Ian Wolfe. They certainly had the know-how and the connections. Dwan had been directing since 1911 and had helmed some of Douglas Fairbanks best swashbucklers, while Ford had entered the movies as a child actor, but had gone behind the camera at the dawn of the sound era as an assistant director for a couple of his uncle, John Ford's films. He never rose out of the B category as a director, but he and Dwan produced a fine movie here.
It's a close-run affair. Even though you watch this knowing that Carroll will come out all right and get the girl, Adele Mara, it's never clear how. Co-director Allan Dwan and Phil Ford cast a lot of Mexican actors, including Thomas Gomez and Alfredo Bedoya in large and sympathetic roles, and get some fine actors to fill in the minor ones, including Grant Withers and the ever-ancient Ian Wolfe. They certainly had the know-how and the connections. Dwan had been directing since 1911 and had helmed some of Douglas Fairbanks best swashbucklers, while Ford had entered the movies as a child actor, but had gone behind the camera at the dawn of the sound era as an assistant director for a couple of his uncle, John Ford's films. He never rose out of the B category as a director, but he and Dwan produced a fine movie here.