A 50-minute silent film where Irish grit meets Swedish sabotage — and somehow nobody looks gloomy about it.
Malloy, a young Irish construction engineer just out of college, is assigned to a project and immediately falls in love with the contractor's daughter, Eileen. The contractor's secretary, who also loves the girl, hires Oleson, a Swede, to work with Malloy and delay the building sufficiently to arouse the ire of the contractor. Under these conditions, however, Malloy works all the harder, never looking gloomy or restraining his Irish humor until the Swede comes to blows with him over a strike.
Practical Effects
Actual construction site filming — real danger, real 1922 muscle.
Acting
Herbert Rawlinson's perpetual Irish cheer under literal sabotage.
Director
Hobart Henley
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hobart Henley directed over 80 films in the silent era but is barely remembered — this survives as a prime example of 1920s 'ethnic' pictures.
The 'fighting Irish' archetype here was already solidified by 1922, but the film's sympathetic Swedish antagonist shows surprising ethnic complexity for its era.
US
