L'enfant prodigue

THE WANDERER survives in a 63-minute abridgement, down form its original 9-reels, which would have been more than 90 minutes. It's the story of a biblical-era country boy named Jether (William Collier, Jr.,) who goes off to an unnamed city and gets pulled into the high life with Tisha, High Priestess of Ishtar, played by Greta Nissen in an early Hollywood appearance (maybe her first). She's protected by by crooked Tola (Ernest Torrence). Long story short, Collier soon loses all his money, spending it on jewels and robes, and Tisha. He also gets sucked into crooked gambling games run by Tola. At some point Wallace Beery wanders in as Pharis (most of his part is lost) and seems to displace Collier in Tisha's bed, but he's out of money anyway. When he's caught cheating he's about to be cast out from the city when heaven intervenes and destroys it anyway. Collier survives the debacle and returns home to beg forgiveness of his parents.

This was a major Paramount release of 1925, directed by Raoul Walsh. Why it was abridged is anyone's guess. Co-stars include Tyrone Power, Sr. and Kathlyn Williams as the parents, Kathryn Hill as the girl next door, Holmes Herbert as the Prophet, Sojin and Snitz Edwards as sellers of fancy goods, and Myrna Loy (legend has it) among the dancing girls.

Nissen is appropriately over the top as the priestess, but Collier steals the show in a terrific performance as the wanderer. Production design is excellent.

William Collier Jr. Is a shepherd who dreams of the big city -- Babylon in this case. When 19-year-old Greta Nissen shows up on her way home, he's captivated, demands his portion of his inheritance from father Tyrone Power Sr., and goes along, paying everyone's way on the trip. But cafe society is expensive, and here comes rich ship captain Wallace Beery.

It's the long-form version of the Parable Of The Prodigal Son, as Demille might have told it: have a good time for five reels and repent in the sixth. Greta Nissen is hot as the priestess of Ishtar who travels by elephant, William Collier Jr. Is topless, and Wallace Beery struts as the guy who buys his place in Miss Nissen's bed. The copy I looked at was far too blurry to see if Myrna Loy was present in the orgy scene -- she claimed it was her first movie appearance -- but the destruction of the city of Babylon is impressive. With Ernest Torrence, Kathlyn Williams, and Snitz Edwards.