Thirty Days¸directed by James Cruze, starred Wallace Reid (in his final film) as John Floyd, Wanda Hawley as Lucille Ledyard, and Charles Ogle as Judge Hooker. The film was released on January 8, 1923, at five reels, and is presumed lost.
Plot: John Cadwalader Floyd, the wealthy son of an indulgent mother, is full of philanthropic impulses. Because of his tendency to flirt, his fiancée, Lucy Ledyard, has put him on probation for one month.
This period barely starts before John finds himself involved with an Italian beauty named Carlotta Polenta, who is caught in an unhappy marriage. Her husband, who has just knifed a man for flirting with his wife, catches the pair.
Polenta attempts to kill John. But John uses a table as a shield and makes his escape. Polenta swears to kill John. By coincidence, Polenta is hired as a butler by John’s mother. Carlotta comes to the Floyd home to warn John of her husband’s threats. The conversation between the pair is overheard by Judge Hooker, a friend of John’s, who offers to help. Carlotta informs them that her husband is a reservist and will have to sail to Italy shortly for special work overseas. Polenta enters the room, recognizes John, and then flees because he is wanted by the police.
Judge Hooker suggests that John go to jail for thirty days, where he will be safe from Polenta. John agrees to this plan, but does not tell his fiancée. In front of the Judge, John attacks Huntley Palmer, a friend of his.
A policeman is called in and Judge Hooker, holding court in the Floyd home, sentences John to thirty days in prison. While in jail, John discovers a shortfall of $5000 in the warden’s accounts. When the warden orders John to clean the spittoons, John tells him he knows about the missing money. The warden changes his tune, and allows John to live “the life of Riley” while he is in jail.
But then Polenta is sent to the same jail for beating his wife. When he goes after John, John defends himself with a pair of shears. Polenta is released before the thirty days, and Carlotta brings word to John that her husband is waiting every day for him outside the jail. Meanwhile, the warden has secured a pardon for John, but John decides to stay put. Lucy and two of her girlfriends visit the prison, doing reform work. John explains to Lucy that he had himself arrested so that he could get some inside information about prisons for society.
Lucy refuses to believe him and leaves. Despite John’s efforts to remain in jail, he is tossed out when the thirty days are up.
John then explains to Lucy the real reason for his stay in prison. That night he gets a telephone call from Carlotta, who tells him her husband has a plan to kill him. John meets two of his former prison companions in a plan to capture Polenta at the Floyd home. When a man comes through the door, they pounce on him, and roll him up in a rug. In the darkness, they don’t realize the man is Judge Hooker. John’s two friends depart. Then John hears a sound, turns, and sees Polenta coming at him with a knife. Lucy, who had seen Polenta sneak into the house, holds him at bay with a gun.
John releases the Judge and Polenta is carted off. John and Lucy embrace.
Reviews were mixed to negative.
Exhibitor’s Trade Review was the most positive, writing that the movie “offers an abundance of quick action and odd, amusing situations calculated to keep an audience on the broad grin from beginning to end.”
Exhibitor’s Herald described the film as “funny at times, monotonous at times, melodramatic briefly and at wide intervals.”
The Film Daily was not impressed, writing “in a way it is good enough but the story is so thin and the treatment so tepid, and the action lacking to such an extent, that excepting for the titles which really are funny and which are exceedingly well illustrated, there isn’t a good deal to the farce, not nearly enough to make it good material for Wally Reid, who incidentally is entitled to a lot better stuff than this.”
Moving Picture World wrote “as a whole, it is a mediocre comedy which never arouses any great amount of interest and is only mildly amusing. We do not believe that this picture will enhance the star’s popularity with the fans.” Screenland wrote “this is a “can’t happen” comedy that ventures timorously toward broad farce but hesitates, flounders, flops and expires. The plot is about as intriguing as the first-grade speller.” Finally,
Motion Picture News noted that the film “just about reaches the low ebb in the tide of Wallace Reid productions,” ironically adding “Wallace doesn’t look or act himself in this picture. He lacks the old time pep and this picture shows that he was in need of his present rest.”