Tony and Freddie, who have been rivals all their lives, vie for the hand in marriage of their childhood sweetheart. Big Freddie has the upper hand when Tony gets himself kidnapped by a ring of muggers whose M.O. is to have one of their members dress up as a woman to lure men into the back seat of their limousine, where they are beaten up and robbed.
"Hurricane" Smith (Francis Ford), head of a steamship company, plots to keep the railroad from entering the city. The map of the proposed route becomes the instrument by which Blake (Frank Baker) and Florence (Florence Gilbert) become targets of Smith's gang. Smith, however, didn't account for Pinto Pete (Ashton Dearholt), he of the spotted hand-- A wanted, whip-wielding rogue who comes to Florence's rescue.
Brilliantino the Bullfighter (originally titled Flood and Sand) is one of the first spoofs of Blood and Sand, Paramount’s smoldering matador melodrama that set box offices ablaze. Like Mud and Sand, starring Stan Laurel, the Banks parody was rushed into theaters in November 1922, while memory of the Valentino vehicle was fresh. The concept of Monty Banks impersonating the passionate matador must have been innately hilarious to audiences who had seen the original picture.
A US Army officer is sent undercover into the hills of Mexico's Baja California region to find and bring down the madman Crando and his group of crazed followers, who are setting up their own criminal empire spreading from Mexico into the United States.