Dark Stairways on AllMovie

Universal luminary Herbert Rawlinson, whose star was on the wane by 1924, has the lead in this rather predictable murder mystery. Although Sheldon Polk (Rawlinson) is only a bank cashier, his extravagant ways reveal that his father is the man who owns the bank. Frank Farnsworth (Hayden Stevenson) wants to borrow 25,000 dollars from the senior Polk, and offers a 100,000-dollar necklace as security. Sheldon is given the task of taking the funds to Farnsworth, but he is robbed along the way. Meanwhile, his father is murdered and the necklace disappears. Because of circumstantial evidence, Sheldon is sent to prison, but he manages to break free (via a dirigible), and sets out to prove his innocence. It's an easy task to figure out that the real culprit is Farnsworth, who had put together the whole operation. Ruth Dwyer -- who is best known as Buster Keaton's leading lady in Seven Chances -- plays Sheldon's main squeeze, a girl by the name of Sunny Day.