That's how the credit reads at the start of the 1951 re-issue, and an all-star cast it is indeed, as a great cast of silent stars strut their stuff under the direction of Louis King in this variation of THE CHAMP, with Henry B. Walthall as an alcoholic ex-movie star and Leon Janney as his son. This cast knows how to play melodrama, and they do so in.... perhaps a little too well as perhaps a little more comedy relief might have helped -- or perhaps might have wrecked the emotional impact.
But Walthall is almost all of the show and he has some lovely scenes, particularly in the sequence where, back on the skids, and made up as Lincoln in a side show, he resists reciting the Gettysburg Address to sell patent medicine. The scenes on the movie set are also wonderful, with former real-life director King Baggott, playing a movie director performs his role efficiently and compassionately. But, as I said earlier, everyone is good here and the movie, while no classic, is well worth your time.
But Walthall is almost all of the show and he has some lovely scenes, particularly in the sequence where, back on the skids, and made up as Lincoln in a side show, he resists reciting the Gettysburg Address to sell patent medicine. The scenes on the movie set are also wonderful, with former real-life director King Baggott, playing a movie director performs his role efficiently and compassionately. But, as I said earlier, everyone is good here and the movie, while no classic, is well worth your time.