Dollar Down

Dollar Down

1925 · 60 min · ★ 7.0 · Drama

Just before he propelled the crime melodrama to new, macabre heights in The Unholy Three, Browning directed this partially lost morality tale pertaining to a different kind of horror: that of a middle-class family living beyond their means and falling prey to moneylenders. Produced by and starring Ruth Roland for FBO Studios, a small operation that later became RKO Pictures, Dollar Down follows Roland as the spendthrift daughter of a manufacturing firm’s general manager (Henry Walthall), who pawns a ring purchased on credit to throw an extravagant party and sends the family’s livelihood into a tailspin. Because its last reel completely disintegrated before it could be copied, the film remains an ultra-rare curio that nonetheless captures an important chapter in Browning’s career before his successful string of films made for MGM.

Directed by Tod Browning · Written by Jane Courthope

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Cast

Ruth Roland Ruth Craig
Henry B. Walthall Alec Craig
Mayme Kelso Mrs. Craig
Earl Schenck Grant Elliot
Claire McDowell Mrs. Meadows
Roscoe Karns Gene Meadows
Jane Mercer Betty Meadows
Lloyd Whitlock Howard Steele
Otis Harlan Norris
Edward W. Borman Tilton
Newton Hall Little Boy
Pat Wing Little Girl

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Dollar Down

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