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Henry Potter is the irresponsible playboy son of a New York millionaire. Fearing he will disgrace the family name if he stays in New York, the father sends him to San Francisco to work in the family shipyards and, to make a man out of him, he is told he will have to start at the bottom and work his way up. Henry decides this is not a good idea and resents it to the point he will indeed start at the bottom but will work his way down from there, and disgrace the family name in San Francisco.
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6What people say
Henry Potter is the irresponsible playboy son of a New York millionaire. Fearing he will disgrace the family name if he stays in New York, the father sends him to San Francisco to work in the family shipyards and, to make a man out of him, he is told he will have to start at the bottom and work his way up. Henry decides this is not a good idea and resents it to the point he will indeed start at the bottom but will work his way down from there, and disgrace the family name in San Francisco. On one of his drinking binges, he meets Marcelle, a cabaret dancer. He tolerates her and she falls in love with him and pleads for him to give up his drinking and carousing. The father sends a company-man out to check on him and he finds Henry an alcoholic and very much in debt. He pays off Henry's debts and then pays a freighter captain $500 to shanghai Henry to Shanghai, where the family name is less well-known. There Henry sinks even lower and frequents the worse dives in the worse sections of the city. For myself truly the highlight of Pordenone Silent Film Festival in 2025...a film not without flaw but overall, I found it a tremendously moving experience (I am sure many others battling addiction will also). Scenes in the opium den are quite confronting I can’t imagine audiences in 1924! Noteworthy also are the opening sequences with Dorothy Mackail and her diary are so tender and beautifully crafted it is such a shame some sequences in the late part of the film are so different and off putting. I think this is a film such against the grain of its time and really, really hope it gets a proper Home Video release, it quite a gem of Silent Cinema. Viewed on DCP at Le Giornate Del Cinema Muto aka The 44th Annual Pordenone Silent Film Festival at Teatro Verdi.
Finally, a Harry Potter movie I can get behind.
Common questions
What is The Man Who Came Back about?+
It follows a rebellious millionaire's son who rejects his father's disciplinary demands and spirals downward into San Francisco's underworld.
Who directed The Man Who Came Back?+
It was directed by Emmett J. Flynn in 1924 during the silent film era.
Where can you watch The Man Who Came Back?+
Only incomplete fragments and archival prints survive in film preservation institutions.
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