The Patent Leather Kid (1927) User Reviews

Big Film Starring Richard Barthelmess

[drednm · 13 May 2007]

THE PATENT LEATHER KID ranks among the great silent films. Based on the best-selling novel by Rupert Hughes, this long and ambitious film is almost two films in one.

Richard Barthelmess, who won an Oscar nomination for best actor, stars as the boxing champion known as the Patent Leather Kid because of his hair (think of Rudolph Valentino). He's a cocky fighter who, between rounds in the ring, has his fair combed while the opponent gasps for air and is washed down. Molly O'Day plays Curley, a kooch dancer who gets involved with the Kid and brings him down. She's a bad-luck gal and diverts the Kid's attentions from his business: boxing.

The comes World War I. The second half of the film shows the horrors of war as the Kid struggles in the trenches. Who should also arrive in Europe but Curley, who is now a nurse.

Both Barthelmess and O'Day are exceptional in the final scenes when the wounded Barthelmess is delivered to the hospital. He's been wounded after a n heroic deed. He's caked in muck and mud and O'Day is just superb as she wipes away the mud from his face and slowly starts to recognize the Kid. The doctor has so many casualties to deal with he's willing to let Barthelmess die because he's so badly wounded, but O'Day begs and pleads and the doctor relents. He lives but is badly crippled.

As the war grinds on there is a wonderful and moving finale involving the American flag.

Barthelmess lost the Oscar to Emil Jannings.

More Slacking Than Heroic

[Cineanalyst · 4/10 · 2 April 2021]

(Note: This an old review based on the poor-quality copies--probably ripped from a grey-market video--that've been circulating online over the years. Reportedly, a better and longer print has appeared at festivals.)

About a decade past America's entry and involvement in the Great War, Hollywood seemed to ramp up its production of WWI epics. At least eight of the barely more than two dozen nominated films for the inaugural Academy Awards are set during the war. "The Patent Leather Kid" doesn't fare well in comparison to fellow nominees such as "Wings" (1927) or "The Last Command" (1928), nor to earlier box-office hits "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1921), "The Big Parade" (1925) and "What Price Glory?" (1926). Even though its war sequence is my favorite part, including tanks and a camera shot from underneath one, it doesn't reinvent the genre the way, say, did the aerial photography of "Wings."

The first part of the film follows the titular Patent Leather Kid during his career as a boxer and his budding romance with the girl, who has equally silly nicknames throughout, namely "Curley" and "Baby." The two boxing scenes are unremarkably shot from long-shot positions during the actual fighting. Better is the editing of the scenes with events external to the fight. For the first bout, the Kid and Baby flirt between rounds by trading insults, and for the second match, the Kid is rattled by the patriotic fervor building up outside the arena.

When Uncle Sam enlists, Baby begins declaring the film's moral incessantly and insensitively. A scenes where she berates the Kid for not removing his hat for the flag and ends up removing it herself from his head and tossing it seems especially unintentionally funny today for its old-fashioned sexism and unflinching nationalism. For one, Baby wears her own cap throughout the scene, and she also shows a letter of her volunteering to sing and dance for the war effort--seeing as she's "only a girl" and, therefore, "can't fight" (later, she becomes a hysterical nurse). Meanwhile, her and others ridicule the Kid as a "slacker" for not enlisting. Baby tells him, "Kid -- lovin' yer country is like lovin' yer mother -- ya just can't help it." The Kid is drafted anyways. Although it might seem that the film's final scenes would contradict the original patronizingly patriotic message--wherein the Kid goes from hiding scared during battle, to seeing his best friend and former trainer die, to posing Atlas style as a war hero, to almost dying and becoming a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic--nope, instead, it concludes with him praying to God to let him stand and salute the flag, which he then miraculously does.

"The Patent Leather Kid" is similar to fellow-nominee and WWI film "7th Heaven" (1927) in that it's a dated melodrama, with some also-dated comedic moments peppered throughout (this one features racist humor involving knocking people unconscious and some stupid bits regarding stuttering and saluting), a blunt and simplistic moral, a maudlin war injury, and two characters in a romantic relationship, for whom I find to be mostly intolerable. Except "The Patent Leather Kid" is a bit worse--at least "7th Heaven" is elevated some by its Best Actress winner Janet Gaynor. Had the Oscars existed in years past, Richard Barthelmess would've surely deserved some nominations, but he's as unexceptional in his this nominated performance as his eponymous character here, who is remarkably unsympathetic for a quadriplegic war hero--nor sympathetic when he's a boxer who's mistreated by his manager. He also knocks a woman unconscious. At least, Barthelmess demonstrates some restraint in his performance in comparison to teenage co-star Molly O'Day, who as Baby, goes overboard with the histrionics by the end. It's bad enough the leads refer to each other as "Kid" and "Baby," but they also act like their namesakes. They're two insolent straw men: one an uber-nationalist who berates men to risk their lives, the other a selfish coward who skips the front-page war announcement to find the notice of his fight in the newspaper and blames his country for his boxing performance. I guess they deserved each other.

A Salute for Richard Barthelmess

[wes-connors · 8/10 · 22 June 2012]

In 1917 New York City, arrogant prizefighter Richard Barthelmess (as "The Patent Leather Kid") is so charismatic, he woos pretty "shimmy" dancer Molly O'Day (as Curley Callahan) even though she has attended a boxing match to root for Mr. Barthelmess' opponent. When the United States joins Europe in the Great War (aka World War I), Barthelmess doesn't show as much interest in fighting for his country as he does in fighting for fame and fortune. He is told, "it's better to be a live champ than a dead soldier." Ms. O'Day tries unsuccessfully to draw out Barthelmess' patriotism. Then, he is drafted...

This film could stand to lose about 30 minutes of its running time; during the early to mid-sections, much is superfluous. The battle scenes are fine, though, except for some initial marching. The end is a flag-waving classic...

"The Patent Leather Kid" is so named due to his slick, combed-back hairstyle, which Barthelmess seemed to prefer for the remainder of his career. This was a big hit for Barthelmess, who gets to use his great ability to make faces throughout; he won a well-deserved "Academy Award" nomination in the "Best Actor" category. O'Day made an impression with her hysterical nursing scene. Stuttering trainer Arthur Stone (as "Puffy" Kinch) and romantic rival Lawford Davidson (as Hugo Breen) lead the supporting cast. Were viewers were slow to find the already clichéd "black-eye" and "chocolate" racial jokes tiresome?

******** The Patent Leather Kid (8/15/27) Alfred Santell ~ Richard Barthelmess, Molly O'Day, Arthur Stone, Lawford Davidson

Barthelmess' Academy Awards Best Actor Nominee Performance

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 10 April 2022]

The sheer number of actresses in their late teen's who rose instantly to stardom during the silent movie era is breathtaking. Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Clara Bow, Greta Garbo and a basketful of other instantaneously recognizable names, barely out of the kid stage playing mostly adult roles, is astonishing. Add Molly O'Day to that basket. She was 16-years-old in the role of a raucous, heckling dancer (Curley Boyle) who attracts the attention of a vainglorious boxer (Richard Barthelmess). O'Day takes on the maturity of an adult in September 1927's "The Patent Leather Kid," as she and the much older boxer settle into a relationship on the eve of the United States entering World War One.

The boxer, known as the Patent Leather Kid, enjoys his high life-style. He makes a good living fighting in the ring. When the U. S. finally does declare war on Germany and its allies, Curley Boyle encourages him to volunteer. The scenario is adapted from a Rupert Hughes story examining the dilemma most young professional athletes face in the midst of a major war, when thousands around them are stepping forward to serve. The Leather Kid is more focused on beating his opponents to a pulp while privately admitting to Boyle he's deathly afraid of guns and bayonets. Curley sets an example for him by volunteering as a nurse in France. He still refuses to join until he's drafted. The movie's second half reveals if he can get up some courage up by being placed on the front lines, creating an interesting conclusion.

Molly O'Day, born Suzanne Noonan, was the youngest of 11 children. She relocated to Hollywood from New Jersey with her mother and sister Isabelle after her father, a judge, passed away. Molly was one of 2,000 who auditioned for Curley, submitting a resume listing her only movie appearance, an itty-bitty part in 1926's "45 Minutes from Hollywood." She easily made the transition to talkies. But before marrying actor Jack Durant in 1934, she declared bankruptcy at 21-years old, probably one of the youngest in America to ever do so. And this all the while still active acting in front of the camera. Once married, she retired from movies.

The role of the boxer in "The Patent Leather Kid" became a nice career boast for Barthelmess. His last hit was six years earlier in 1921's "Tol'able David." The "Leather Kid" was the year's fifth highest box office motion picture, reminding the actor of his late 1910s days when his popularity in movies crested in D. W. Griffith-directed films. After several of his films bombed during the mid-1920s, the boxing story appealed to him. In its first year of considering the acting awards for its ceremonies in May 1929, the Academy considered a 12-month period, from August 1, 1927 to August 1, 1928. In an unusual rule that lasted only one year, the Academy took into an account the performers' entire body of work for Best Actor and Best Actress. Barthelmess was nominated for this role in "Leather Kid" as was well as the 1928 film "The Noose." He was edged out by the only other nominated actor, Emil Jannings.

Barthelmess maintained his film acting career into the early 1940s. He became tired of playing character roles and decided, ironically in light of playing the rich boxer in "The Patent Leather Kid," to join the United States Navy Reserves after Pearl Harbor. He rose up the ranks to beome a lieutenant commander in the reserves. After the World War Two he made the choice to retire completely from films , living off his many real estate property investments.