The film opens with a young vagrant looking through a window at an older man seated at a table with his back towards him. A large breakfast is laid out on the table and the onlooker approaches him to ask if he can spare anything. Only then does he see the bullet wound in the man's face and realizes that the killer, the man's adopted daughter, is still hiding on the premises. She tells him that she acted in self-defense after the man attempted to molest her.
Thus begins William Wellman's tale of hobos riding the rails in this Wallace Beery vehicle featuring a young Louise Brooks. The portrait of homeless lives in the late 1920's is surprisingly sympathetic, racially diverse, and morally complex.
Thus begins William Wellman's tale of hobos riding the rails in this Wallace Beery vehicle featuring a young Louise Brooks. The portrait of homeless lives in the late 1920's is surprisingly sympathetic, racially diverse, and morally complex.