The Risky Road (1918): Besetzung, Handlung & Streaming

Released in 1918, The Risky Road is a drama film directed by Ida May Park, running about 50 minutes.

What it’s about. 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.

Who’s in it. The Risky Road stars William Stowell as Melville Kingston, Dorothy Phillips as Marjorie Helmer, Juanita Hansen as Lottie Bangor and Claire Du Brey as Mrs. Miles Kingston, among others.

How it landed. With an audience score of 4.2/10, The Risky Road has proved divisive with audiences.

Where to watch. Streaming options change often. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch The Risky Road page.

If you liked it. Fans of The Risky Road tend to enjoy Die Verurteilten, Der Pate, Schindlers Liste and Der Pate - Teil II.