Son of the Gods

Richard Barthelmess is a college student, and a rich one. He has at least two polo ponies, a "petting wagon" and is quite willing to lend Frank Albertson a sawbuck. He's diffident when Albertson suggests he drive them, their girls, and an extra for him, and pays for them to go to a roadhouse. The reasons for his shyness become clear when the girls and other boys get into an argument when none of the girls will dance with Barthelmess: he's Chinese.

He leaves college, and goes to Monte Carlo to look after the interests there of his father, E. Alyn Warren. One night at the Casino, Constance Bennett spots him and falls in love.

This early talkie by Frank Lloyd has a lot of issues, both in the performances, which are staged for the microphones, and Barthelmess' low-level depression which he portrays quite ably, makes him dull. Ernest Haller's camerawork is lovely, and the themes of racism and class are well done, but even though it has a lot going for it, it isn't on my list of movies to look at again very often.

There's half a reel of two-strip Technicolor that doesn't survive in current prints.