An otherwise honest gambler, played by Jack Holt, begins to cheat at cards in order to put his son John Darrow through mining school in this lavish Zane Grey adaptation produced by Paramount. The callow foster-son pays back the noble gesture by running off with Holt's mistress, Olga Baclanova.
Acting
Olga Baclanova's eyes do what dialogue cannot.
Cinematography
Paramount splurged on actual Sierra Nevada locations.
Director
Otto Brower
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released months before the Hays Code crackdown, this pre-Code Western got away with mistress-stealing and implied suicide that would vanish from screens by 1934.
Baclanova filmed this between 'The Man Who Laughs' and 'Freaks' — her specialty was beautiful women who destroy men, and Paramount knew it.
US
