The Ninety And Nine 1922
THE NINETY AND NINE was one of the workhouse melodramas of the early 20th century, in which a plot involves a mysterious stranger, a beautiful and virtuous local maid and a village idiot, ending in a spectacular set-piece of high risk. In BEN HUR it is the chariot race. In BLUE JEANS its the girl tied to the railroad tracks. In this one, Mysterious Stranger Warner Baxter is hiding out to avoid family scandal as a murder suspect on the turkey farm owned by Colleen Moore’s mother. Things are falling apart, but eventually a neighboring hamlet is ablaze and it’s up to Mr. Baxter to drive a locomotive through the flames and rescue the innocent; after which all plot points are resolved instantly.
