The Ruling Passion on AllMovie

Although United Artists was primarily formed to release films from its founders -- Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith -- the firm almost immediately began releasing pictures from other sources. This comedy-drama, based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Earl Derr Biggers and starring the always excellent George Arliss, was a good choice. After suffering a nervous breakdown as the result of hard business dealings, millionaire James Alden (Arliss) is forced into retirement. But Alden is not happy being part of the social whirl, so he sneaks around behind his wife (Ida Darling) and daughter, Angie (Doris Kenyon), and gets another job. He goes into partnership with young Bill Merrick (Edward Burns) and they open a garage. It turns out that running a garage is every bit as cutthroat as big business was, and to complicate matters, Angie is in love with Merrick without realizing that her father is his partner. The partners manage to make their garage a success, and Angie and Merrick agree to wed.