The Roaring Road

"The Roaring Road" is an enjoyable silent movie starring the ill-fated Wallace Reid. I say ill-fated because the actor became hooked on morphine...by his own studio which gave it to him in order to get the injured actor back to work. Sadly, only a few years later, Reid died in a sanitarium trying to break his habit.

When the story begins, the very gruff J. D. Ward is preparing to have three of his drivers enter the big race...as he's hoping to have his race cars win it for the unprecidented third time. Well, disaster strikes and the three cars are damaged during shipment....and Ward's salesman, 'Toodles' (Reid), is planning on using the three damaged cars to make one roadworthy car to enter in the race. Well, Toodles manages to do it...and win the race. Now you'd THINK this would make Ward happy....but the old goat isn't. Why and what's next?

This is a fun film, though the characters are a bit one-dimensional....with Ward being a manipulative grouch and Toodles being plucky....and not much more. But it is worth seeing and very good for a film from 1919.