I saw this one under a handicap: they didn't have a projector with a suitable aperture, so the left of the image was cut off down to Academy ratio and there was no accompaniment -- two conditions under which one should not see a silent film. However, it was that or nothing and so any reader is warned that my opinion may be influenced by these issues -- but I don't think so. I used to haunt the 80 Saint Marks and I lost a pair of shoe soles in the old Regency, glued there by thirty years' deposit of Coca-Cola residue. At least I hope it was Coke residue.
Anyway, this change-of-pace comedy shows Bill Hart doing some nice comedy -- his dislike of a top hat is most amusing -- and he climbs about the buildings of Manhattan -- Joe August must have enjoyed the trip out east -- like a combination of Douglas Fairbanks and Will Rogers. But despite a good beginning and a good ending, there is a title-heavy middle section in which every joke is contained in the titles and most of the plot events, too. The result is a middle that drags. Add in a couple of thoroughly unlikeable characters that we are supposed to like -- Arthur Shirley and his movie-father, Andrew Robson, and you have a movie that is carried solely on the abilities of William S. Hart -- which are sufficiently broad to make this worthwhile, if not a classic.
Anyway, this change-of-pace comedy shows Bill Hart doing some nice comedy -- his dislike of a top hat is most amusing -- and he climbs about the buildings of Manhattan -- Joe August must have enjoyed the trip out east -- like a combination of Douglas Fairbanks and Will Rogers. But despite a good beginning and a good ending, there is a title-heavy middle section in which every joke is contained in the titles and most of the plot events, too. The result is a middle that drags. Add in a couple of thoroughly unlikeable characters that we are supposed to like -- Arthur Shirley and his movie-father, Andrew Robson, and you have a movie that is carried solely on the abilities of William S. Hart -- which are sufficiently broad to make this worthwhile, if not a classic.