Curlytop on AllMovie

The story to this melodrama came from one of the "Limehouse" stories written by Thomas Burke, the same author who wrote the original Broken Blossoms story. Unfortunately this tale is no Broken Blossoms -- Shirley Mason, while being a fine little comedienne, is no Lillian Gish, and director Maurice Elvey was certainly no D.W. Griffith. Big Bill Branigan (Wallace MacDonald), one of the tough characters of London's Limehouse district, falls in love with Curlytop (Mason) because of her sweet innocence. He leaves his sweetheart, Bessie (Diana Miller), for her and resolves to go straight. When he sets out to find a job, the jealous Bessie gets Curlytop drunk and hacks off her long curls. Curlytop runs away and gets a job as a waitress on a floating barge owned by Shanghai Dan (Warner Oland), the head of a gang of Chinese crooks. Branigan returns to find Curlytop gone, and when he finds her curls in Bessie's possession he forces her to reveal her whereabouts. He saves Curlytop just as she is about to be hypnotized by Dan. Another ship crashes into the barge and Dan is killed, while the couple are reunited.