Two swindlers, Blackie Daw (Henry Carson Clarke) and J. Rufus Wallingford (Fred Niblo), arrive in Battlesburg, Iowa, and con the local townsfolk that they are wealthy businessmen.
They use the town's money to establish plans for a factory to produce covered carpet tacks and set off a major real estate boom.
[11] The play opened at the Gaiety in September 1910 was a huge hit and had 424 performances in New York, 198 shows in London, and a translation in Paris.
Filming took place at the J. C. Williamsons Studio, opposite Her Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne,[12] and on location, in particular at the Junction Hotel in St Kilda.
[4] The cast includes Enid Bennett, who understudied Josephine Cohan on stage and went with Niblo and her to America when they returned there in 1915.