The Wheel Of Life (1929)

Stars:

Richard Dix, Esther Ralston, O.P. Heggie

In his second talking picture, Richard Dix is cast as British officer Capt. Leslie Yeullat, at present on leave in London. Falling in love with Ruth Dangan (Esther Ralston), the wife of his commanding officer (O.P. Heggie), Yeullat does the gentlemanly thing by suppressing his own emotions for the sake of the Regiment. He goes so far as to resign from his commission and returns to India as a civilian. The paths of Yeullat and Ruth cross again when he is called upon to rescue the heroine, and several other British subjects who have been trapped in a Buddhist monastery by Indian insurrectionists. The plot is resolved by a curious combination of traditional stiff-upper-lip heroics and Buddhist mysticism, the latter dispensed by unctuous high priest Tseuring Lama (Nigel de Brulier).