JohnHowardReid Review of Risky Business

Risky Business (1926)

A full-length silent movie certainly makes a nice change!

[9/10 · 28 March 2014]

It certainly becomes a very agreeable surprise to find such an excellent print of a complete, if moderately budgeted, "A"-grade silent movie on DVD instead of the inevitable – if colorful – Kodascope cutdown. Despite its "A"-grade budget, this one was probably regarded as a run-of-the-mill, if moderately entertaining comedy in its day. Indeed, it seems obviously designed to appeal to middle-class audiences. The social set is not only mercilessly satirized, but even emerges as the villains, while our plucky little doctor hero (played by Ward Crane) remains from first to last, the soul of honor, charity and good works. Little Vera Reynolds – little in stature that is, as well as brains until she is put wise by our hero – makes an agreeable damsel-in-distress, and there are some brief comic turns by "ZaSu" (that was the spelling she usually favored) Pitts. Incidentally, I thought Dorothy Brock played the little Wheaton girl and that Louise Cabo faithfully engineered the overweight maid-of-all-work, complete with a high-risk stunt in full view of the camera. All in all, an entertaining and even inventive domestic comedy/drama, currently available on an excellent Alpha DVD that runs for no less than 90 minutes.