Dollar Down

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.

• Tod BrowningDirector

• Ruth RolandRuth Craig
• Henry B. WalthallAlec Craig
• Mayme KelsoMrs. Craig
• Earl SchenckGrant Elliot
• Claire McDowellMrs. Meadows
• Roscoe KarnsGene Meadows
• Jane MercerBetty Meadows
• Lloyd WhitlockHoward Steele
• Otis HarlanNorris
• Edward W. BormanTilton
• Newton HallLittle Boy
• Pat WingLittle Girl