Sawdust (1923) User Reviews

Sawdust Is Proof Why Circus Films Continued to be Released in the Twenties

[Ziggy5446 · 7/10 · 28 October 2007]

This routine circus drama was a typical rags-to-riches vehicle for minor Universal Studios star Gladys Walton. She, in her third circus film, portrays a circus performer who grows tired of circus life and agrees to pose as the long-lost daughter of a wealthy couple, in Jack Conway's drama, Sawdust (1923).

The elderly couple believe that their daughter has been kidnapped by show people. The corrupt ticket seller of the circus dreams up the scheme of having Nita Moore (Walton) pose as their lost child. Meanwhile, Moore who has been substituting for a drunken clown, meets Phillip Lessoway (Niles Welch), a local lawyer. She temporarily brings joy to the lonely couple, who accept her as their lost daughter. The ring master, Pop Gifford (Frank Brownlee), who is Moore's brutal foster father since her parents died in an earlier circus accident, searches for her. Rather than return with him to the circus, she confesses to the couple the truth and then, suffering from the pangs of guilt, tries to commit suicide. But Lessoway, the lawyer, rescues her. Gifford is forced to leave without her, and the young couple plan their future together.

Walton appeared in two earlier circus dramas, Pink Tights (1920) and The Man Tamer (1922).

Wonderful old-fashioned 50 minutes that sparkles with Gladys Walton's spunk

[mmipyle · 8/10 · 8 February 2021]

"Sawdust" (1923) is a very early-film-years style film story about a youngish (probably 17 or so) circus high altitude (upper tent) acrobat whose guardian is the circus master (but not the manager) and a controlling and mean one at that. The youngish girl is played by Gladys Walton and her guardian 'father' by Frank Brownlee. Matthew Betz plays the ticket man, a roguish sort not necessarily appreciated by those in power at the circus, but who ends up with a ploy that can get Walton out of her circus life and into the lives of a somewhat wealthy and very stable couple whose daughter disappeared (possibly stolen by circus performers as a baby) about as many years ago as Walton is old. She accedes to the plan and has a scar put behind her left ear to simulate the other girl; then goes with Betz to the couple and insinuates herself into their lives.

This was the third circus film Walton had been in within a period of three years. She not only was good at it, she did all her own stunts! When the film was made, Walton was a 19 year old! She'd already been a minor Universal star for four years! Her spunk alone makes anyone who watches her stay glued to the picture. There are contemplative moments when she looks surprisingly like Claudette Colbert from her right side, yet when she's active, sportive, or even combative in scenes she'll remind one curiously of Mary Pickford. One thing she possesses in spades is on-screen charisma!

Needless to say, the plot leads to the discovery of Walton's ruse. By this time she's met and fallen in love with (and he with her!) Phillip Lessoway, a lawyer, played by Niles Welch. Welch is the family lawyer for Herbert Standing and Edith Murgatroyd who play the Wentworths, the elderly couple Walton goes to live with to escape the circus and into whose lives she's insinuated herself as their long-lost daughter. By the time the ruse is discovered Mrs. Wentworth has already died. What will become of Walton, Standing, and the love affair with Welch? Watch, then find out! It's a worthwhile 50 minutes that satisfies much like it must have in '23. You'll need oodles of popcorn and a relaxed credulity.