The Ne'er-Do-Well

• 1923

• Watchlist

Although this Rex Beach story was filmed before in 1916 as a "super-feature," seven years later it would become a routine Paramount release starring the ever-steady, enduringly popular Thomas Meighan. Meighan is Kirk Anthony, a young spendthrift whose wild parties and all-around laziness cause his father no small amount of frustration. Anthony's next abandoned revelry turns out to be his last -- his father has him shanghaied and shipped off to Panama. He gets a job on the railroad and falls in love with Chiquita (Lila Lee), the pretty daughter of Andreas Garavel, one of the country's big politicos (Gus Weinberg). But he finds himself in a lot of trouble when he's vamped by Edith Cortlandt, a young American wife (Gertrude Astor). When her husband (John Miltern) kills himself, scandal and possibly a murder indictment threatens. But Edith clears Anthony, and he is able to earn his father's -- and Chiquita's -- respect.