Da Desgraça à Ventura

I watched a thoroughly enjoyable Richard Dix silent today, "The Lucky Devil" (1925), with Esther Ralston and Edna May Oliver. If one looks at the story of the rise of Dix in pictures, it comes with the death of Wallace Reid, the most popular of all matinée idols of the teens and first couple of years of the twenties. Reid's forte was making fast moving shows usually about fast moving automobiles. These were good comedies usually with a good dollop of drama and adventure and some thrills thrown in for good measure. Dix took over the reins of such films and made several, meanwhile expanding his repertoire to include such silent masterpieces as "The Ten Commandments" (1923), directed by Cecil B. De Mille and "The Vanishing American" (1925). "The Lucky Devil" could almost be a follow-up to Reid's "Excuse My Dust" (1920).

Good show with all the ingredients of gentle comedy mixed with some rough-housing, besides. Dix, a displayer in a department store, enters a raffle and wins the so-called 'hoodoo' bad-luck automobile formerly owned by the store owner's son, a soul seemingly always in trouble with cops and women. Well, suddenly Dix begins to have the same problem, only he also gets mixed up in the life of Esther Ralston and her Aunt Edna May Oliver. Hilarious misunderstandings and undertakings become the fodder for the day! Wonderful show that moves like greased lightning and doesn't let up for a moment from beginning to end! Recommended. Newly available from Grapevine in a very nice print with good score!

Department store worker Richard Dix (as Randy Farnum) admires an automobile (license #F-131313) used as a model for his outdoorsy camping exhibit. Unaware the car was donated due to the previous owner professing bad luck behind the wheel, Mr. Dix longs to take the car on the road. He gets his wish upon winning the "hoodoo" auto in a raffle. Unsuccessfully attempting to avoid problems with woman and cops, Dix meets pretty blonde Esther Ralston (as Doris) and her pessimistic aunt Edna May Oliver (as Abbie) while traveling and getting a ticket. The women are on their way to claim an inheritance, but are in for a surprise...

An edit of this film cut mild expletives, omitted scenes and changed some names; notably, Dix become "William 'Bill' Phelps"...

Dix and Ms. Ralston continue to cross paths, until "The Lucky Devil" ends with an expected "big race". It's an amusing picture, and certainly helped make Dix a box office star. It did seem Dix was carrying on for actor Wallace Reid, an immensely popular star who died suddenly in 1923. The story was written by Byron Morgan, a regular writer for Mr. Reid, beginning with "The Roaring Road" (1919). While already famous for appearing in prestigious productions, Dix entered "Top Ten" favorite players polls held by "Motion Picture Magazine" (1926) and "Quigley Publications" (1927); and, he transitioned to "talkies" successfully.

****** The Lucky Devil (7/7/25) Frank Tuttle ~ Richard Dix, Esther Ralston, Edna May Oliver, Charles Sellon