AllMovie

In the early 1920s Fred Niblo was known for directing adventure films -- he had already done Mark of Zorro and The Three Musketeers for Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and would soon be put into service for Ben Hur -- so he was a natural choice to helm this swashbuckling picture based on the play Captain Applejack by Walter Hackett. Timid Ambrose Applejohn (Matt Moore) leads a life devoid of excitement until some thieves show up around his English country estate, bent on finding the treasure left by a pirate ancestor. After temporarily thwarting them, Applejohn falls asleep and dreams of the conquests of his long-dead relative. He wakes up inspired by his visions of romance and adventure and really puts the villains to rout. Along the way he discovers that real adventure and fantasy are two different things, and that the love of a nice girl, like his ward Poppy Faire (Enid Bennett), is far better than that of an adventuress such as Ann Valeska (Barbara La Marr).