An Independent Picture
Directed by J.P.McGowan
Released May 29, 1925
Starring Helen Holmes and William Desmond, Robert Edeson, Mack
V. Wright, Albert J. Smith, Ruth Stonehouse, C. L. Sherwood, Paul
Walters, and Walter Fitzroy.
A typical railroad melodrama, Devore, an administrative assistant to Grimshaw, the president of the Pacific Coast Railroad, is being paid by a rival railroad to delay the construction of a new railroad line. Grimshaw and his daughter, Helen (Helen Holmes), come from the East to find the cause of the delay on the new line. Helen hires Gordon Steele (William Desmond) who has just completed supervising work on a new dam. Gordon recognizes Grimshaw as the man who had once fired his father. Gordon vows to delay the work on the new railroad line.
The work on the new railroad line is proceeding at a snail's pace until Gordon falls in love with Helen. After that, things run smoothly with the exception of a runaway train.
Square jawed and Dublin born William Desmond was raised in New York and was in vaudeville and on the stage at an early age. He traveled all over the country with stock companies, and, at the height of his stage career, he starred in a series of cartoons known as " Desperate Desmond" in the Los Angeles Examiner about 1910. The author of the cartoon was Al Hirshfield, and Desmond was pictured as a villain with a mustache.
Desmond at one time had his own theatrical company before entering films in 1915. In his first feature film, "Peggy," he played opposite Billie Burke. He started by playing leads in society melodramas, but, by the early twenties, he was playing in serial and action films. He was very popular during his years at Universal appearing in well over a dozen serials.
Desmond was paunchy and nearly fifty years old with the coming
of sound, but he continued acting by playing secondary roles,
villains, sheriffs, and bartenders in serials and in westerns.
copyright 2002 by John DeBartolo. All rights reserved.