The Show-Off (1926)

A blowhard who poses as a railroad executive (but is really just a $30-a-week clerk) catches a young bride and then drives her family's finances to the brink of ruin.

Director:

Malcolm St. Clair

Writers:

George Kelly (from the comedy by), Pierre Collings (screen play)

Stars:

Ford Sterling, Claire McDowell, Charles Goodrich

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Ford Sterling	...	Aubrey Piper
Claire McDowell	...	Mom Fisher (as Clare Mc Dowell)
Charles Goodrich	...	Pop Fisher (as C.W. Goodrich)
Lois Wilson	...	Amy Fisher
Louise Brooks	...	Clara
Gregory Kelly	...	Joe Fisher

Storyline

A blowhard who poses as a railroad executive (but is really just a $30-a-week clerk) catches a young bride and then drives her family's finances to the brink of ruin.

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Plot Keywords:

rust proofing | philadelphia pennsylvania | car accident | office clerk | egotist | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

16 August 1926 (USA)

Also Known As:

Før og efter brylluppet

Filming Locations:

Broad Street Station - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Famous Players-Lasky Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

Two old Philadelphia newspapers are seen being read in the film, The (Morning) PUBLIC LEDGER (1845-1934) and THE EVENING PUBLIC LEDGER (1914-1942).

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Quotes

Pop Fisher: Keep your damn hands to yourself! I never saw such a pest in my life!

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Alternate Versions

Kino International distributes a version with a violin and piano music score, compiled and directed by Timothy Brock. The copyright is by Film Preservation Associates in 1998, and the running time is 82 minutes. Judging from the copyright length of the film, this version was run at about 20 frames per second, a comfortable silent speed rate.

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Connections

Featured in Why Be Good? Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema (2007)

User Reviews

What a Find! A Fun and Easy to Watch Silent Gem!

Wow! What a find! I saw this movie as part of a 'double feature' with Clara Bow's formulaic 'The Plastic Age,' (1925) and this is clearly the better film!

It stars Ford Sterling (Ford Sterling? Of the Keystone Kops?)-- yes! Ford Sterling -- who gives a bravura performance as Aubrey Perry, a boastful, lying, pompous, windbag blowhard. Today, it's easy for us to get quickly caught up in this kind of character's boastful story telling, because we watch 'George Costanza' every night on the TV sitcom 'Seinfeld,' waiting and hoping for him to get his comeuppance.

It's easy to play the character too broadly and make Perry unsympathetic and boring, but the good script and Malcolm St. Clair's tight direction keep Sterling under control. St. Clair is best remembered as the director of a wide load of forgotten films, but he did direct the best of the six (!?) Lum and Abner pictures, 'Two Weeks to Live' (1943).

Aubrey Perry is a big meaty role -- no wonder it's been done four times! This was the first version of the play "The Show Off," by George Kelly, the others featured Spencer Tracy as Perry in 1934, Red Skelton in 1946 and the Great One, Jackie Gleason himself, in the TV version in 1956. In all these versions we can easily imagine and hear how they would do the part. But here, in the 'quaint' Silent Era, Sterling knows how to makes full use of his mastery of mime, body language and facial expressions to bring the character to life, and he carries the whole film easily.

During the whole movie you need to do a lot of lip reading for dialog not in the intertitles, but it's worth it. When he is explaining how he wrecked his new car (which he won in a raffle, but says he bought by selling automobile stock given to him by his uncle -- and it wasn't Art Vandelay!), Perry's story telling and gestures look so effortless and natural.

This Paramount film has no stagy or herky-jerky motions that we associate with the films of Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, the Sennnett Keystone Kops or early films of the teen years. In fact, if you look at movies from the major studios of MGM or Paramount during the twenties, you won't see any -- just quality film making.

There's only one slapstick sequence, the clichéd out of control automobile (driven by Perry) careening wildly down a main street sending cops scurrying; it goes on a little too long, and seems out of place, given the mood and style of the rest of the film (of course, the scene wasn't in the play). Because of that I can only give the movie an 8. If you watch it either as an introduction to the glories of quality silent films, or to see Ford Sterling's best film performance, you won't be disappointed by picking this one. It's great!

Note: Also featured is Louise Brooks, with her trademark bangs, a few years before she made Pandora's Box (1929).