AllMovie

This is melodrama, not a horror film, and it's booze, not a full moon, that changes John Gilbert's character from man to beast. Gerald Stanley (Gilbert) is an English gentleman who is engaged to Beatrice Joyce (Alma Frances). But Stanley's personality changes whenever he drinks, and his brother--who also loves Beatrice--uses this to his advantage. After Stanley's latest blackout, his brother informs him that he (Stanley) killed Beatrice's brother. The horrified Stanley flees from England and goes to live in Quebec. The now sober Stanley stays away from liquor, until he receives word that Beatrice has married his brother. The news sends him on a drinking spree and once again he turns beastly. In a saloon he gets in a fight and kidnaps Elizabeth Gordon (Norma Shearer), a respectable young girl who has wandered off from her father during a trip through the woods. Stanley takes Elizabeth to his shack, where he tries to force himself on her. But his pursuers are closing in so he leaps in a canoe for a wild ride down the rapids. This sobers him up and, mortified by his actions, he apologizes profusely to Elizabeth. When she sees the real Stanley, she falls in love with him, and later on he receives word that Beatrice's brother was never killed. Shearer co-starred in this film on a loan-out from her regular studio, Metro. Although the picture wasn't very good, Gilbert caught the attention of Metro executive Irving Thalberg, who decided to sign him up when the studio combined forces with Goldwyn to form MGM. A few months later, Gilbert and Shearer would appear together again in the far superior He Who Gets Slapped.