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An attorney (Thomas Meighan) becomes the intermediary between an Indian tribe and the territory's settlers in this fine silent western based on a novel by Peter Clark MacFarlane. Meighan, however, gets in hot water when, upon his advice, the Indians sell their land to an outright crook (Berton Churchill). One of the great stars of the silent era, Thomas Meighan died relatively young in 1936 and has been unfairly forgotten. Following on the heels of The Alaskan, this was Meighan's second action adventure in a row, but the classically trained actor was more popular in society dramas such as DeMille's Male and Female (1919) and Why Change Your Wife?) (1920). Directed by Joseph Henaberry, who had played Abraham Lincoln in The Birth of a Nation, Tongues of Flame became the screen debut of corpulent Berton Churchill, a fine character actor best known for portraying blustery men of means.