by Hans J. Wollstein
synopsis
An otherwise honest gambler, played by Jack Holt, begins to cheat at cards in order to put his son John Darrow through mining school in this lavish Zane Grey adaptation produced by Paramount. The callow foster-son pays back the noble gesture by running off with Holt's mistress, Olga Baclanova. They are stopped by the avalanche of the title and the forgiving Holt manages to rescue both their lives. While acknowledging that Olga Baclanova of the Moscow Art Theater was slightly out of place in this rough and tumble Western melodrama, the trade-paper Variety praised her performance as one of the main reasons for the film's success.
characteristics
- Sacrifice-for-family
- Scam
- Reunion
- Return
- Mistress
- School
- Self-sacrifice
- Vamp
- Town
- Swindle
- Son
- Mining
- Mine
- Con-game
- Con-artist
