Conquest of Canaan on AllMovie

This picture was a mediocre adaptation of the Booth Tarkington novel (which was filmed previously in 1916). Joe Louden (Thomas Meighan) is an outcast in the small town of Canaan, and is especially disliked by Judge Pike (Louis Hendricks). There is one inhabitant, however, who is fond of Joe -- the pretty but poor Ariel Tabor (Doris Kenyon). But she inherits some money and goes to Paris with her father (Malcolm Bradley). While she is gone, Joe's brother (Cyril Ring) is involved in a scandal, and Joe takes the blame. He then leaves for Chicago to study law, but when he returns, he keeps to himself and his clientele consists of the raunchy characters living in Beaver Beach. But Joe finally lands a controversial case which makes his reputation while ruining Judge Pike's. Ariel, her father having died, returns to Canaan to be reunited with a successful, self-confident Joe. Thomas Meighan was a bit old and urbane to play a small town youth -- in fact, just a few months earlier, he had played a man going through an early mid-life crisis in Conrad In Quest of His Youth.