Fool's Paradise

While Cecil B. De Mille could be ponderous and simple minded - think the first 10 COMMANDMENTS or THE PLAINSMAN - he occasionally had the knack of adding enough self mockery into his work to make it fly. I though it was the contribution of the writers on THE CRUSADES and UNION PACIFIC but here we get it in a 1921 movie with an obsessive poet whose tribute gives the woman he idolises the giggles, a floozie whose attempts to go Florence Nightingale have her send for a cook book and a star dancer whose presentation is as ridiculous as her admirer's poems.

Put them in oil rush El Paso and equally art directed Bali and provide a plot that Chaplin would re-cycle in CITY LIGHTS. What's not to love.

We get the swarming crowd scenes that De Mille featured (was he working with Richard Rosson yet?) and some remarkable effects work along the way.

Conrad Nagel gives a career best performance, doing his part with absolute seriousness which plays off the film's excesses. What's missing? Well another great score by Neil Brand which also tells us we'll have a better time if we don't laugh. It shapes the presentation impeccably.