AllMovie

Barry O'Connor (former heavyweight champion James J. Corbett, otherwise known as "Gentleman Jim") is the son of Patrick O'Connor (Richard Cummings), the district boss for New York's Lower East Side. The elder O'Connor has a rival, the up-and-coming Edgar Jones (Harry Northrup), who isn't too fond of Barry, either. A mayoral election is coming up, and it looks like O'Connor will throw his ward's votes to William Tompkins (Frederick Vroom), but then Tompkins' daughter Mary (Cora Drew) tosses Barry out of her home for dancing with a maid. To keep from losing O'Connor's support, Tompkins drags his haughty daughter to apologize to Barry, and to lead the Grand March with him. Jones shows up, and when he's mean to Mary for not dancing with him, Barry pummels him and several of his associates, too. This intrigues Mary, and the girl from Fifth Avenue comes to love the Lower East Side boy. Director John Ford, then known as Jack Ford, was better known for his work on Westerns (then and later in his career), but he wasn't out of place on this picture with its brawling, brawny Irish characters.