Lost, Strayed or Stolen

Lost, Strayed or Stolen (1923)

** (out of 4)

A greedy and uptight ranch owner kicks the poor but good-hearted David Phillips (Leo Maloney) off his land due to a note he hasn't been able to pay back. The land owner doesn't know that his daughter wants to marry Phillips but when a jealous co-worker finds out he kidnaps the owner's young son and frames Phillips for the crime. With a posse hot on his trails Phillips must prove his innocence. As far as Westerns go there are certainly a lot of poor ones out there but this here manages to be somewhat entertaining thanks to Maloney. I wouldn't say he was a great actor but I thought he fit the role fairly well here as he pretty much just had to act sweet when the lady and of course tough with the bad guys. The bad guy here is played by Bud Osborne who seemed to love playing bad and the screenplay goes as far as showing how "bad" he is during one scene where he's about to throw a puppy to its death but of course Maloney steps in. Pauline Curley is pretty good as the love interest as well. The biggest problem is that the story is pretty straight-forward and nothing ever happens to build up any drama as there's no a second where you actually think Phillips is going to fail in his quest. The ending seems to have been influenced by THE BIRTH OF A NATION as the sister and her young brother are trapped in the house with the bad guys trying to break in a kill them and we must wait for the hero to rush to the scene. The sequence isn't nearly as intense as that in the Griffith film though.