The Man Who on AllMovie

Bert Lytell stars in this slightly absurd romantic comedy. When Bedford Mills (Lytell) returns from the Great War (or World War I, as it was later known), he takes a job as a bank clerk. Somehow he and a couple of his pals wind up at the Fifth Avenue home of the Jessops, a society family. Mills falls hopelessly in love with the Jessop daughter, Helen (Lucy Cotton). She likes him, but she's very conscious of the difference in their social standing, so she tells him that if he wants her he must make a name for himself. Mills has no idea about how to do this until he concludes that the cost of shoes is outrageous. In protest he decides to go barefoot. His crusade takes him to a fashionable restaurant where Helen is dining. She's less than impressed with his attempt at publicity. The police are not happy with him either, and he winds up in jail. The folks on the Lower East Side believe in him, and they all begin going barefoot, too. Mills' name becomes known, and even though he doesn't get Helen, he does win Mary Turner (Virginia Valli), who dares to go barefoot alongside him -- and who is the daughter of the president of the shoe trust.