artman-8 A Bizarre, far-fetched, wholly unrealistic bit of nonsense! Conrad Nagel's performance is so overripe it is actually hilarious! And what the hell was with that mustache of his? As most of the other reviews have said, the one saving grace is the presence of beautiful Loretta Young, who was obviously adapting to making talking films much better than her co-stars! The film is so crudely constructed and acted that i cant help but wonder if it was made earlier and sat on the shelf for a while? I cant agree tho that one should avoid this film, it is def an early talkie curiosity and because of Nagel's outrageously overwrought performance, almost a must-see!

blanche-2 Not to be disrespectful of the early days of talkies, but if you see this one listed on TCM, skip it. It absolutely creaks with age. Set in Quebec, "The Right of Way" is a melodrama about a rather mean attorney nicknamed "Beauty" (don't ask me why) who gets involved in a bar fight when he goes to see his thieving brother-in-law in a bad part of town. As a result of the beating he takes, he develops amnesia and is brought to a rural area by a man he defended. When he regains consciousness, he remembers nothing, and takes the name Charles Mallard. He falls in love with the lovely daughter of the postmaster, played by Loretta Young. Young, radiant and beautiful, was about 18 when she did this film. Except for a naturalistic Young, the acting is outrageously bad, intensely melodramatic, with many lines said with tremulous voices. As is often the case in the early days of sound, the actors weren't used to the medium yet so their timing is off. And the French Canadian accents - horrific. I can't agree with one of the posters about Conrad Nagel - yes, he was over the top, but so was his atrocious dialogue. He at least didn't drag the pace.Not good.

Ron Oliver A beautiful young woman influences a callous lawyer into regaining THE RIGHT OF WAY to moral decency.Conrad Nagel dominates this little soap opera, based on Sir Gilbert Parker's novel, with his highly melodramatic performance as a hardhearted Quebecois lawyer who exhibits an enormous distaste for nearly every other human being. His behavior would repulse the viewer, were it not that his acting is so over the top that it becomes quite a bit of fun to watch.Beautiful Loretta Young appears rather late in the story and ushers in the best scenes of the film, when Nagel is suffering from amnesia. Their moments together, as she cares for him, are touchingly tender.A small group of character actors add much to their supporting roles: Olive Tell as Nagel's distraught wife; William Janney as her pathetic brother; Fred Kohler as the backwoodsman who saves Nagel's life; Halliwell Hobbes as a benevolent seigneur who loves Miss Young; little Snitz Edwards as a village tailor; and George C. Pearce as a kindly priest.

sportyrider This movie was a waste of time. The acting was awful and the plot was thin.In Quebec, Canada a snobbish lawyer who dislikes his wife is beaten and left for dead on the waterfront. He is found by the man he had recently represented in Court and won an acquittal. But he sort of lost his memory after the beating and takes a job with the local tailor. While in the rural area of Quebec, he falls in love with "Rosalie" but cannot marry her because he sort of remembers that he is still married to the woman he dislikes. I suggest that you watch the first 10 minutes of this movie and the last 5 minutes. That seems to be enough to know what happened without wasting all of your time.