AllMovie

This formulaic drama didn't miss a cliché -- there was the small-town boy with big dreams (Kenneth Harlan), his old mother (Mary Carr), the pretty daughter (Madge Bellamy) of the wicked financier (Edwards Davis), and the villainous attorney who's really causing all the trouble (John Miljan). Put all these characters together, and the plot falls right in line -- Lafayette Jordan (Davis) wants to build a water power project in the Ashaluna valley, but property belonging to Judson Forrest (Harlan) and his mother (Carr) stands in the way. Forrest has fallen in love with Jordan's daughter, Mary (Bellamy), without realizing who she is. Henry Mogridge, Jordan's attorney (Miljan), is jealous because he wants Mary himself, so he goes about trying to ruin Forrest. Judson is an aspiring inventor and he mortgages his property in order to fund one of his creations. With the help of the village banker, Mogridge buys the mortgage and proceeds to foreclose. Forrest thinks Mary is part of the scheme, but he and his pals manage to pay off the mortgage just in the nick of time (which happens to be "on the stroke of three"). Forrest discovers that Mary had nothing to do with the plot and that Jordan had no idea of Mogridge's machinations. The motion picture was adapted from the novel The Man From Ashaluna by Henry Payson Dowst.