The Splendid Road on AllMovie

This typically overblown Frank Lloyd-directed western takes place in the days of the California Gold Rush. Anna Q. Nilsson stars as Sandra De Hault, who heads to California in the company of three orphaned children she has adopted along the way. Taking up residence in a squalid shack, Sandra falls in with slimy saloon-owner Buck Lockwell (George Bancroft). Feeling that she's now damaged goods, she refuses to marry Stanton Holliday (Robert Frazer), the "nice boy" with whom she eventually falls in love. But Stanton rescues Sandra from her surroundings with a well-aimed sock at Buck's chin. Lionel Barrymore, then in a career slump, plays the thankless role of a philosophical gambler. The Splendid Road was based on a novel by Vingie E. Roe.