The Winning of Barbara Worth

In turn-of-the-century Imperial Valley, California, a social where big-city engineer Holmes (Ronald Colman) expresses his enchantment with local beauty Vilma Banky (title character), not quite grasping her thing with native Abe (Gary Cooper), in The Winning Of Barbara Worth, 1926.

Introduction of dueling hunks, 3rd-billed Gary Cooper (as local "Abe") and top-billed Ronald Colman (as engineer "Holmes"), hired with his boss (E.J. Ratcliffe) to irrigate the desert, title character (Vilma Banky) instigating their meeting, in Henry King's The Winning Of Barbara Worth, 1926.

Vilma Banky, title character, plays her own mother in prologue, in a sandstorm, saving young Carmencita Johnson, later rescued by settler Jefferson Worth (Charles Lane) and posse (Erwin Connelly, Clyde Cook et al), in The Winning Of Barbara Worth, 1926, with Ronald Colman and Gary Cooper.