Learning on his mother's death bed that he has a wealthy father, young Bruce Lane heads out to meet him but loses the locket that she had as proof. In the meantime, a series of mail robberies occur, and Lane is the suspect, even though the titled villain (Rollo Dix, appropriately dressed all in black) is the obvious culprit. With a pretty heroine (Betty Jordan) and her feisty kid brother (Dickie Jones), Lane tries to find the locket and prove his innocence, not realizing that his father (Lafe McKee) is a kindly old man, giving us a tender reunion that leads to the villain being taken care of.
While it has a decent opening and a fine conclusion, there is much filler in the middle, and that makes this slow going and extremely predictable. There's only a slight bit of comedy (involving Jones of course), and the mustache twirling villain is quite one-dimensional. Several sequences are rather dark in the prints available in the public domain, and there are also some sequences that have little to no dialogue. That makes this somewhat difficult to get through, even though the opening is it definite grabber.
While it has a decent opening and a fine conclusion, there is much filler in the middle, and that makes this slow going and extremely predictable. There's only a slight bit of comedy (involving Jones of course), and the mustache twirling villain is quite one-dimensional. Several sequences are rather dark in the prints available in the public domain, and there are also some sequences that have little to no dialogue. That makes this somewhat difficult to get through, even though the opening is it definite grabber.