Soldiers of Fortune (1919)

Civil engineer Robert Clay (Norman Kerry) is commissioned by wealthy New Yorker Mr. Langham to open iron deposits in the tiny South American republic of Olancho. General Mendoza (Wallace Beery), the unscrupulous head of the army, unsuccessfully tries to persuade President Alvarez, and then Clay, to divide the spoils of the contract. Mendoza begins a revolution against Alvarez, but Clay and his men set out to stop the plan. Meanwhile, Mr. Langham arrives with his two enchanting daughters, Alice (Anna Q. Nilsson) and Hope (Pauline Starke), on board a yacht owned by Reginald King, Alice's suitor. Clay's long-lived attraction for Alice has been met with coldness, but Hope wins his heart by shooting down some of Mendoza's men when they try to kill him. After a savage battle, and the arrival of a U.S. battleship with sailors, Mendoza is finally beaten.