Excuse My Dust

In "The Roaring Road" (1919) ********, you might recall, Wallace Reid (as Walter Thomas "Toodles" Walden) set the auto record from Los Angeles to San Francisco. He also won a wife, Ann Little (as Dorothy). Ms. Little has convinced Mr. Reid to give up dangerous car-racing; now, he is the manager of her father, Theodore Roberts (as J.D. "The Bear" Ward)'s, company. Reid has settled into domestic tranquility, but will a threat to his old record (and sick kid) tempt him into revisiting the dangerous game of auto racing? Hint: the film is titled "Excuse My Dust!"

As a sequel, speed writer Byron Morgan's story is more contrived and unimaginative than his other "speed flicks". The cars are better displayed than earlier, however; and, Tully Marshall (as Mutchler) is a welcome addition to the returning cast. One scene, where Reid nearly kills his son, is rather more uncomfortable than exciting; some audiences may have thought Wally, Dorothy, and Junior were the real Reid family.

A star vehicle for Wallace Reid, and a sequel to his earlier success, THE ROARING ROAD. It's also one of the few decent prints of any of his majors roles that survive.

Reid is an ex-racing driver now, settled down with a baby - -- played by his son, Wallace Reid, Jr. -- and his wife doesn't want him to speed anymore. But his father-in-law, played by the irrepressible Theodore Roberts, is putting up a new car to set a record from Los Angeles to San Francisco and wifey has walked out on Reid, with baby, to San Francisco, where the baby is sick.

Will Reid win the race? Will the baby be all right? Will Theodore Roberts steal the show? Fans need not worry, but will want to see this anyway.

When last we saw Toodles Walden, he had won the road race from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Now he has a wife and baby, but still has an itch to race, despite the admonitions of his wife Dorothy, and father-in-law J. D. Ward, a car manufacturer. Then Toodles is pulled over for speeding with his wife and infant in the car. An exasperated J. D. cooks up a scheme to prevent Toodles from driving for the next six months. J. D. Also sells off his racing cars, determined to get out of that business. But a turn of events leads him back into the sport, with the speed record from Los Angeles to San Francisco up for grabs. Naturally Toodles wants to drive in the race, but J. D. forbids it. Meanwhile, Dorothy has left Toodles and has taken their child to San Francisco. Then Toodles receives a telegram from his wife, urging him to come at once because their infant is sick. Can Toodles get to San Francisco in time, and maybe set a new record in doing so? Well, yes ... and no ... well, you'll see ...

This film is the follow-up to "The Roaring Road." The same cast returns, including Ann Little as Dorothy and Theodore Roberts as J. D. Ward. Villains Tully Marshall and Walter Long are added this time for good measure. Even Wallace Reid's actual son makes an appearance (his film debut), as the infant.

While predictable, the film is still fun, and probably a bit better than the first one. The road race is more interesting, with some good camera work and an impressive car wreck. Roberts steals the show again with his bluster and omnipresent cigar. He even gets behind the wheel of a racing car to take part in the final race.

To appreciate these Byron Morgan/Wallace Reid films, it is quite important to see them as a series. This film directed by Sam Wood is the sequel to the previous year's The Roaring Road, directed by James Cruze, both films being based on a series of short stories written by Morgan fro the Saturday Evening Post (1918-1919) and featuring a character called "Toodles" Walden played by Wallace Reid.

The two films together form something in the nature of a "situation comedy" series, forerunner of such series as Blondie and Topper that would become such a popular genre in the thirties. In The Roaring Road Toodles is the employee of the head of Darco Cars, the chain-cigar-smoking J. D. Ward, known as "the bear" and played by Theodore Roberts and courting his daughter ("the cub") played by Ann Little. In the second film we see all the same characters. Toodles and Dorothy (the name of course of Reid's real-life wife although again played by Little) are now married and Theodore Roberts is now father-in-law and still the boss. Toodles and Dorothy have a baby (played by Reid's own baby son Wally). Many other characters reappear - the mechanic Tom Hardy (played by Guy Oliver) and the driver Griggs, played by an uncredited James Gordon. Frank Wheeler (played by Clarence Geldart) also reappears briefly in the second film. The only newcomer is the ever-splendid Tully Marshall as the villainous rival (wearing dark glasses in the sinister manner pioneered by Wallace Beery in Tourneur's 1917 film Victory).

Although this particular series did not go further, there was a second "road" series directed by Sam Wood and again written by Byron Morgan about a trucker named Dusty Rhoades, which would continue for the few years that remained to the luckless Wallace Reid.

Reid's drug addiction was an open secret in Hollywood itself and the arguments over his speed-addiction that resonate through this second film must have had a rather special significance for some at least of those who watched it.

The racing is particularly interesting too because it is not just track-racing. The climax of both films are night-time races run on the road between Los Angeles and San Francisco, where the object is in part to break the record for the journey. This was an entirely real phenomenon. For those who may be interested the record set in 1916 was nine hours 38 minutes and this record was broken in 1920 by the tour-passenger "Peerless" which did the journey in nine hours twenty minutes.

The recreation of this run (it was not actually a "race" as such) involved of course night filming is particularly well done in the first film while this second film mainly concentrates on the very end of the run which takes place in the early morning. There is though the added pleasure that J.D. himself has decided to take the wheel of one of the competing cars.

Here however is a description of the actual 1920 run by the Peerless from the Los Angeles Herald:

"Although the skies were clear, the night was a cold one and dense banks of fog hung over the Ridge Route obscuring the road so that it was impossible to see but a few feet ahead even though the Peeriesa was equippcd with powerful lights. Although benumbed with cold and fatigued by the dash through the night,the pilot and the three passengers tackled the tortuous Ridge highway as if the record-breaking run had but just started. It was a game test for the men and the car. In spite of cold and fog the 126 miles between Bakersfield and Los Angeles was accomplished In 2 hours and 44 minutes. The total mileage was 423.2 miles."

What is more the association of the run with the promotional activities of the motor business is, as one might expect, also entirely true to life:

"The Peerless that made the record breaking trip without the least mishap or the slightest mechanical trouble has been placed on the salesroom floor of Smith Brothers, where it is attracting the attention that is its due"