Merton of the Movies (1924)

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Director:

James Cruze

Writers:

Marc Connelly (play)
George S. Kaufman (play)

Release Date:

3 November 1924 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Not an expose of the "movies," but a story of love, reverses and ambition that can happen in any town. Glenn Hunter in the title role of his tremendous stage success, co-starred with Viola Dana. Fifty-two record breaking weeks in New York.

Plot Keywords:

Hollywood | Based On Play | Based On Novel

Cast

Glenn Hunter	...	Merton Gill
Charles Sellon	...	Pete Gashwiler
Sadie Gordon	...	Mrs. Gaswiler
Gale Henry	...	Tessie Kearns
Luke Cosgrave	...	Lowell Hardy
Viola Dana	...	Sally Montague, 'Flips'
DeWitt Jennings	...	Jeff Baird
Elliott Rothe	...	Harold Parmalee
Charles Ogle	...	Mr. Montague
Ethel Wales	...	Mrs. Montague
Frank Jonasson	...	Henshaw
Eleanor Lawson	...	Mrs. Patterson

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Famous Players-Lasky Corporation

Trivia:

The original Broadway production of "Merton of the Movies" by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly opened at the Cort Theatre on November 13, 1922 and ran for 392 performances.

Movie Connections:

Version of Make Me a Star (1932)

Hollywood hoo-ha

"Merton of the Movies" was originally a novel by Harry Leon Wilson, an extremely popular humour author in his day. Adapted as a stage play by Marc Connelly and George S. Kaufman, it became a Broadway smash which was filmed at least three times.

When we first see Merton Gill (played by handsome Glenn Hunter), he's a dashing swashbuckler cowboy. But this turns out to be a Walter Mitty-style fantasy. In fact, Merton is a moron: a gormless klutz who dreams of stardom as a dramatic actor but who has no talent and no brains. (I can think of several real-life movie stars who fit that description.)

Recruited by movie director Jeff (DeWitt Jennings) to do a very simple piece of business in a dramatic scene, Merton emotes hopelessly and causes a disaster. But the show-biz bug has bitten him, and now Merton goes to Hollywood in quest of stardom. Along the way, he has various misadventures ... especially with lovely brunette Sally Montague, who is nicknamed "Flips" because she used to be a juggler in vaudeville. In the Broadway version of "Merton", some of the best lines went to the wisecracking "Flips": in this film version, actress Viola Dana has to suffice with a few sarcastic tosses of her head between the sarcasms printed in the intertitles.

SPOILER: The pay-off is sadly predictable. Although Merton is a total no-chancer as a dramatic actor, his ineptitude is (supposedly) so hilarious that he blunders into a successful career as a comedian.

Rather a lot of movies have used this idea of the klutz who reaps comedy stardom by accident (Chaplin in "The Circus", Harold Lloyd in "Movie Crazy", Buster Keaton in the TV episode "The Silent Partner"), but I've always found it clichéd and implausible.

Gale Henry (an Olive Oyl lookalike) is very good in a supporting role, and there are good performances by Charles Ogle and by Charles Sellon: the latter actor is best-known as the blind man who terrorised W.C. Fields in "It's a Gift".

The silent-film version of "Merton of the Movies" is fitfully amusing, but not great. James Cruze's direction is excellent: Cruze's career is long overdue for re-appraisal. But the 1947 remake of "Merton", starring Red Skelton, is much funnier than this silent version. There's also an early talkie remake, "Make Me a Star", with Stu Erwin as Merton.