Dollar Down

Dollar Down (1925)

Drama

Just before he propelled the crime melodrama to new, macabre heights in The Unholy Three, Browning directed this partially lost morality tale pertaining to a different kind of horror: that of a middle-class family living beyond their means and falling prey to moneylenders. Produced by and starring Ruth Roland for FBO Studios, a small operation that later became RKO Pictures, Dollar Down follows Roland as the spendthrift daughter of a manufacturing firm’s general manager (Henry Walthall), who pawns a ring purchased on credit to throw an extravagant party and sends the family’s livelihood into a tailspin. Because its last reel completely disintegrated before it could be copied, the film remains an ultra-rare curio that nonetheless captures an important chapter in Browning’s career before his successful string of films made for MGM.

Director: Tod Browning

Casts

	Ruth Roland as Ruth Craig
	Henry B. Walthall as Alec Craig
	Mayme Kelso as Mrs. Craig
	Earl Schenck as Grant Elliot
	Claire McDowell as Mrs. Meadows
	Roscoe Karns as Gene Meadows
	Jane Mercer as Betty Meadows
	Lloyd Whitlock as Howard Steele
	Otis Harlan as Norris
	Edward W. Borman as Tilton
	Newton Hall as Little Boy
	Pat Wing as Little Girl
	Toby Wing as Little Girl
	Sonnie Walker as Little Boy
	Michael Dark as (uncredited)
	Lou Marangella as (uncredited)

Crew