Dollar Down

Story

Synopsis

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.

Director

Tod Browning

Writers

Jane Courthope, Ethel Hill, Frederick Stowers

Language

English

Country

United States of America

Release date

20 September 1925

Ensemble

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