The Great Divide (1929)

Set in a small mining town bordering Mexico, a mine owner (Ian Keith) falls in love with an arrogant flapper (Dorothy Mackaill) whose only concern is having a good time. At first, he is unaware that she is the daughter of his deceased partner. But when finds out, he kidnaps her so he can stop her promiscuous ways and "teach" her to be a good girl. Based on the 1906 Broadway play by William Vaughn Moody and directed by Reginald Barker (THE MOONSTONE). Filmed simultaneously as both a silent film and a sound film. I watched the sound version. The camera work is more fluid than most sound films of its vintage, notably in the fiesta sequence. But boy, are its ideas not only outdated but downright offensive. The heroine is forcibly kidnapped and humiliated in order to make her palatable to the sexist hero's moral views. Then there's the thinly veiled racism toward its Mexican characters. Myrna Loy, still in the exotic phase of her career, is a spiteful Mexican vixen and her character is one of those stereotypical "I keel you if you take my man" (yes, she actually says that) types. Worse, when Mackaill finds out Ian Keith may possibly be involved with her, she contemptuously calls him "a squaw man". Lovely! With Creighton Hale and Claude Gillingwater.