Since most of the westerns that turn up on TV are those from the fifties, it's easy to forget that they were also a mainstay of the silent era; an enormous iceberg from which only the very tip has survived. By 1925 I guess they'd already run out of subjects to append the word "Fighting" to when they were coming up with a title for their latest Bill Cody western, so "Smile" it was!
Bill Cody (no relation to 'Buffalo Bill' Cody) is a personable hero with blue eyes who is agile on horseback, can hold his own in a punch-up and proves handy with a lariat in this amiable, good-looking 'B' western. But the real bonus comes in the form of a youthful brunette Jean Arthur as the heroine. Although best remembered for her roles in a business suit, Ms Arthur even in her heyday made the occasional western - most memorably in leather as an impossibly glamorous Calamity Jane in DeMille's 'The Plainsman' (1936) - and of course in her big screen farewell, 'Shane' (1953), in which she looks little different from how she does here. Fetchingly attired for most of the film in an ensemble of blouse, jodhpurs and riding boots; as with many sound stars when you see them in a silent film you mentally supply her distinctive gurgling voice whenever she opens her mouth. She gets to contribute slightly more to the action than many western leading ladies get the chance to; and is present, for example, during the satisfying horseback chase and punch-up that concludes the movie.
Bill Cody (no relation to 'Buffalo Bill' Cody) is a personable hero with blue eyes who is agile on horseback, can hold his own in a punch-up and proves handy with a lariat in this amiable, good-looking 'B' western. But the real bonus comes in the form of a youthful brunette Jean Arthur as the heroine. Although best remembered for her roles in a business suit, Ms Arthur even in her heyday made the occasional western - most memorably in leather as an impossibly glamorous Calamity Jane in DeMille's 'The Plainsman' (1936) - and of course in her big screen farewell, 'Shane' (1953), in which she looks little different from how she does here. Fetchingly attired for most of the film in an ensemble of blouse, jodhpurs and riding boots; as with many sound stars when you see them in a silent film you mentally supply her distinctive gurgling voice whenever she opens her mouth. She gets to contribute slightly more to the action than many western leading ladies get the chance to; and is present, for example, during the satisfying horseback chase and punch-up that concludes the movie.
