Dorothy Appleby is a charmer but Harry Davenport is just about impossible to take as a fist pounding, yelling irascible old man in the story of a crooked trucking firm about to put a small railroad out of business.
Jed Carson (Harry Davenport) has no choice but to file for bankruptcy as the Armstrong Trucking Company is driving his railroad out of business. Lawrence Doyle (Grant Withers) is appointed as receiver. His cost cutting measures have cost a lot of jobs. Now two more employees, an engineer, Tom Wilson, and a fireman are told their jobs are history.
Doyle and Carson’s niece Kay (Dorothy Appleby) go out to talk to farmers to try and get their business back. It’s the usual situation that starts with a misunderstanding before the two start falling for each other. They convince two farmers to give them another try.
One farmer has a load of tomatoes and the other lettuce. Each has a boxcar nearby to load up. That night Armstrong sends one of his boys, Stymie, to do some sabotage. One load is sprayed with gasoline and the other is sent down the track and wrecked.
Things get worse for Larry as Armstrong tells Jed that he’s the one who had Larry appointed as receiver. Larry gets a new ruling from the ICC that the railroad can meet the trucking company’s lower rates. The Farmer’s Cooperatives has a lucrative contract up for grabs. Larry has Tom try and break a speed record to the town of Paradise so they can get the contract. Once again sabotage gets the train wrecked and Tom and the fireman killed. The town blames Larry for using old equipment. The mob comes after Larry but Jed stands up for him and everyone calms down.
Jed can’t present a contract to the Cooperative. Only Larry can do that since the line is in receivership. To prevent Larry from getting to the meeting Armstrong has his main man Stymie kidnap him and lock him in a train that’s on its way out of town. Larry manages to escape and get to the meeting. He convinces the farmers to award the contract to the winner of a race between the train and the trucks. Armstrong has a few more tricks up his sleeve.
This would have been an okay movie but Davenport’s over the top character is just too much.
If Dorothy Appleby looks familiar that’s because she was in a number of the Three Stooges comedies.
Dorothy Appleby
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