Jim the Penman on AllMovie

Lionel Barrymore stars in this melodrama, based on the play by Sir James L. Young. Jim Ralston (Barrymore) is a country bank clerk who has a talent for forging signatures. He's in love with Nina Bronson (Doris Rankin, Barrymore's real life wife) and saves her father (Ned Burton) from financial ruin by forging a check. Baron Hartfeld, the check's owner (Anders Randolf), catches him, but instead of prosecuting, he decides that Jim could be of use. As a result, Ralston winds up in charge of a gang of forgers. He also destroys Nina's romance with Louis Percival (Douglas MacPherson) through a series of forged notes. Jim then marries Nina and their daughter Louise grows up to become engaged to the son of an English banker who is about to be victimized by Jim's gang. Then Percival and Nina discover the forgeries that caused their misunderstanding. Jim realizes it is the end for him, so he takes his gang out on a yacht and sinks it, killing everyone aboard.