Victory 1919

Victory is a surviving 1919 American action film directed by Maurice Tourneur and starring Jack Holt, Seena Owen, Lon Chaney, Wallace Beery and Bull Montana. The film is an adaptation of the 1915 eponymous novel by Joseph Conrad (the only film adaptation of one of his works that he ever lived to see).

Axel Heyst (Holt), a solitary individual, lives by himself on an otherwise deserted island in the South Seas. When he travels to a neighboring island on business, he encounters a pretty young girl named Alma, who is being abused by her boss, Mr. Schomberg, at the hotel where she works. Axel takes pity on the poor girl and helps her to escape with him to his island getaway in a boat, making it plain however that he seeks only a platonic relationship with all other human beings.

When Mr. Schomberg discovers Alma has left him, he sends three horrific criminal types (Mr. Jones, Ricardo and Pedro) after her, tricking them into thinking there is a hidden treasure on Axel's island. The grimacing Ricardo (Lon Chaney) is the evilest of the three, constantly cleaning his fingernails with a long stiletto-type knife. The brutish Pedro (Bull Montana) follows Mr. Jones' orders slavishly, but is unaware that years earlier, Mr. Jones sadistically killed his brother by burning him alive.

The three scoundrels arrive on Axel's island and while he initially extends his hospitality to them, he realizes they are plotting to kill him, rob his house and take Alma away with them. A fight erupts and Axel kills Ricardo by shooting him off the roof of his house. Mr. Jones is killed by Pedro in the same fashion in which he had killed Pedro's brother. Axel and Alma realize their love for each other and decide to get married and live happily on the island.