The Risky Road - 1918

Ida May Park started in the film business as a scriptwriter, but in 1917 Universal announced that Park would direct films with actress and producer Dorothy Phillips for the company’s Bluebird brand. Park’s films often had a strong female perspective and The Risky Road is no exception. The story of a country girl who comes to the city to work, but falls for a rich man and undeservedly gets a bad reputation, the film was marketed as “the drama every woman should see”. The surviving fragment, showing the despair of Phillips’s character, is a real cinematic gem that leaves one yearning for more material of the film to be discovered. In 2008, a tinted nitrate fragment, with Swedish intertitles at the opening of the second reel, was deposited at the Archival Film Collections of the Svenska Filminstitutet. From the fragment, a 35mm B&W duplicate negative was made, from which this print was struck using the tinting of the nitrate as color reference.

50min
1918
NR
Released
Trakio rating0.0/10
IMDB rating5.3/10

Cast

Dorothy Phillips profile pictureDorothy PhillipsMarjorie Helmer
William Stowell profile pictureWilliam StowellMelville Kingston
Juanita Hansen profile pictureJuanita HansenLottie Bangor
Claire Du Brey profile pictureClaire Du BreyMrs. Miles Kingston
George Chesebro profile pictureGeorge ChesebroRobert Grant (as George Cheseboro)
Joseph W. Girard profile pictureJoseph W. GirardVan Belt (as Joseph Girard)

About The Risky Road

The Risky Road Overview

Ida May Park started in the film business as a scriptwriter, but in 1917 Universal announced that Park would direct films with actress and producer Dorothy Phillips for the company’s Bluebird brand. Park’s films often had a strong female perspective and The Risky Road is no exception. The story of a country girl who comes to the city to work, but falls for a rich man and undeservedly gets a bad reputation, the film was marketed as “the drama every woman should see”. The surviving fragment, showing the despair of Phillips’s character, is a real cinematic gem that leaves one yearning for more material of the film to be discovered. In 2008, a tinted nitrate fragment, with Swedish intertitles at the opening of the second reel, was deposited at the Archival Film Collections of the Svenska Filminstitutet. From the fragment, a 35mm B&W duplicate negative was made, from which this print was struck using the tinting of the nitrate as color reference.

Age Rating: NR
Runtime: 50min

Extra details

Original Title: The Risky Road
Original Language: English
Directed By: Ida May Park
Production Companies
Universal Film Manufacturing CompanyBluebird Photoplays