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For Ziegfield Follies comedian Will Rogers' first film, Goldwyn Studios bought a Rex Beach story and gave him a load of publicity. Laughing Bill Hyde (Rogers) is an escaped convict (with a heart of gold, of course) who makes his way up to Alaska. There he meets Ponotah, a beautiful half-breed (Anna Lehr), who is being robbed of her share of a mine by the other owner, Slayforth (Joseph Herbert). Bill goes to work for the mine and discovers that the superintendent is stealing its gold, and so he steals the gold back. Meanwhile, a doctor who had befriended Bill (Clarence Oliver) is given a mine by a dying man. Bill discovers it is barren, but he salts it with some of the stolen gold and gets Slayforth to buy it for a huge sum. Thus the villains are outwitted, the doctor gets enough money to marry his girl back home, and Bill gets Ponotah. If this film doesn't sound like much, it wasn't, but Rogers' already-famous charm managed to come through anyhow.