The Lucky Devil (1925) User Reviews

Will Richard Dix Get Lucky?

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 31 May 2012]

Department store worker Richard Dix (as Randy Farnum) admires an automobile (license #F-131313) used as a model for his outdoorsy camping exhibit. Unaware the car was donated due to the previous owner professing bad luck behind the wheel, Mr. Dix longs to take the car on the road. He gets his wish upon winning the "hoodoo" auto in a raffle. Unsuccessfully attempting to avoid problems with woman and cops, Dix meets pretty blonde Esther Ralston (as Doris) and her pessimistic aunt Edna May Oliver (as Abbie) while traveling and getting a ticket. The women are on their way to claim an inheritance, but are in for a surprise...

An edit of this film cut mild expletives, omitted scenes and changed some names; notably, Dix become "William 'Bill' Phelps"...

Dix and Ms. Ralston continue to cross paths, until "The Lucky Devil" ends with an expected "big race". It's an amusing picture, and certainly helped make Dix a box office star. It did seem Dix was carrying on for actor Wallace Reid, an immensely popular star who died suddenly in 1923. The story was written by Byron Morgan, a regular writer for Mr. Reid, beginning with "The Roaring Road" (1919). While already famous for appearing in prestigious productions, Dix entered "Top Ten" favorite players polls held by "Motion Picture Magazine" (1926) and "Quigley Publications" (1927); and, he transitioned to "talkies" successfully.

****** The Lucky Devil (7/7/25) Frank Tuttle ~ Richard Dix, Esther Ralston, Edna May Oliver, Charles Sellon

Old Racing Cars!

[silentmoviefan · 7/10 · 10 February 2014]

I just love old racing cars and this movie has them! The race is the best thing in this movie, but there's plenty else to like too.

The leading actor in it is great in whatever he does, in my opinion. In this movie, he demonstrates camping equipment in a department store. That is his job. Part of it is a car he's really got his eye on. He really wants this car, too. The father of the owner of the car donates it to a Girl Scouts lottery. The leading actor buys 50 tickets. Not surprisingly, he wins the car and awaaaaaaay he goes.

He decides he's going camping, even though he doesn't even know how to pitch a tent.

When he arrives at his destination, there's the pretty Esther Walton and one of my all-time favorite actresses Edna May Oliver, as her aunt.

I don't know what it is about Edna May Oliver. I have just always liked her. I guess it was those old cartoons that satirized her.

Anyway, Esther takes a shine to him, but Edna May does not! She gets the funny idea (like some women do) that he is interested in Edna May. Nopers! Edna May and Esther are on their way to a small town in the area to meet Esther's uncle (Edna May's brother?) and find out that the uncle is to use an expression my father uses "Crazier than a bessy bug" and resides in a sanitarium. They sold all their possessions to make the trip, so they're stuck.

The main character doesn't know it yet, but he's stuck, too. An older fella stole his wallet.

Edna May, Esther and the main character end up in the same motel. The main character stays because the proprietor thinks he's from a wealthy family. The main character wants to help out (because of Esther).

While at a garage, he learns that there's a automobile race with a $10,000 payoff for first prize. That would really help them out (not to mention him).

He needs $100 to enter and sees his chance in lasting two rounds with a gentleman listed a boxing champion of South Australia.

Here is something else to like: The gentleman playing the boxer was a guy named Gunboat Smith, who I believe was an actual boxer at one time.

The main character lasts the two rounds and enters the race. Along about this time, the proprietor finds out he is not from a rich family and has the constable keep and eye on him and his car.

This main character thinks fast when the constable shows up and takes him along for the ride. Despite obstacles put up by some evil drivers, the main character wins the race (in a neat way you'll need to see the movie to see) and gets the girl.

I love old racing cars, so I'll give it a "7". I'd say it's really worth your while to check out.

Dix and Tuttle at their best!

[JohnHowardReid · 10/10 · 26 October 2012]

An hilarious farce, imaginatively yet realistically and inventively scripted, "The Lucky Devil" introduces us to a wonderful gallery of fascinating characters, enacted by a really gifted assembly of players. Frank Tuttle's direction is everything that really superb comedy direction ought to be, namely fast, fresh and funny. In fact, "The Lucky Devil" still comes across to a 2012 audience with the same power and perhaps an even greater appeal that had both critics and picturegoers cheering in 1925. It still measures up as a stylishly directed, lavishly produced, and most ingratiatingly played, top-flight farce. The entire cast deserves unstinting praise, but most particularly Richard Dix, Vera Ralston and Charles Sellon.

Loads of rollicking fun that moves like greased lightning!

[mmipyle · 9/10 · 4 March 2012]

I watched a thoroughly enjoyable Richard Dix silent today, "The Lucky Devil" (1925), with Esther Ralston and Edna May Oliver. If one looks at the story of the rise of Dix in pictures, it comes with the death of Wallace Reid, the most popular of all matinée idols of the teens and first couple of years of the twenties. Reid's forte was making fast moving shows usually about fast moving automobiles. These were good comedies usually with a good dollop of drama and adventure and some thrills thrown in for good measure. Dix took over the reins of such films and made several, meanwhile expanding his repertoire to include such silent masterpieces as "The Ten Commandments" (1923), directed by Cecil B. De Mille and "The Vanishing American" (1925). "The Lucky Devil" could almost be a follow-up to Reid's "Excuse My Dust" (1920).

Good show with all the ingredients of gentle comedy mixed with some rough-housing, besides. Dix, a displayer in a department store, enters a raffle and wins the so-called 'hoodoo' bad-luck automobile formerly owned by the store owner's son, a soul seemingly always in trouble with cops and women. Well, suddenly Dix begins to have the same problem, only he also gets mixed up in the life of Esther Ralston and her Aunt Edna May Oliver. Hilarious misunderstandings and undertakings become the fodder for the day! Wonderful show that moves like greased lightning and doesn't let up for a moment from beginning to end! Recommended. Newly available from Grapevine in a very nice print with good score!