AllMovie

Once a top leading man, George Walsh suffered several career setbacks after being dropped from the starring role in Ben-Hur and was obliged to make twice as many pictures for a fraction of his old salary. Walsh's third vehicle for 1927 was The Winning Oar, one of several college-athlete pictures released that year. Walsh plays the captain of a college rowing team, who secures a promise from the heroine that she'll marry him if he wins the Big Race. But after achieving victory, Walsh loses his girl to another man, a smarmy, mustachioed "lounge lizard." Years later, the husband is murdered, and the girl is held responsible. By a bizarre coincidence, the district attorney is none other than Walsh, who gives up his job to prove the girl's innocence.