Director: JOHN EMERSON. Screenplay: John Emerson, Anita Loos. Story: Horace B. Carpenter. Photography: Victor Fleming. Film editor: William Shea. Art director and construction manager: Bob Fairbanks. Assistant director: William Henabery. Production manager: Jack Fairbanks. Producer: Doug Fairbanks.
Copyright 16 June 1917 by Artcraft Pictures Corp. U.S. release: 24 June 1917. Los Angeles opening: 4 July 1917. 5 reels. 72 minutes. Alpha's nice Kodascope cutdown runs 60 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A New York railroad magnate's spoiled, twenty-year-old son is a mad western freak who fondly imagines that America's West is still wild and woolly – and he wants to be part of the action! COMMENT: A movie that pokes fun at itself even way back in 1917? Fortunately, Alpha have a very good print of this one – even if it is a nice 4-reel Kodascope black and white cutdown. It would be great to see a tinted original, but I think prospects there are dim. Be thankful that Oldies have unearthed such a good print! Most of Kodak's cuts seem to have been made in the New York scenes. Anyway, the movie itself as we now have it, is a viewer's delight from go to whoa. The direction is brisk, the script witty, the actors most capable, and Fairbanks himself comes across in fine form. If you've never seen a Fairbanks movie of this vintage, you'll be surprised at how sophisticated it is, both in the making and the telling. In fact it's hard to decide which is the more amusing – the on screen action or the titles that wryly comment upon it all.
Copyright 16 June 1917 by Artcraft Pictures Corp. U.S. release: 24 June 1917. Los Angeles opening: 4 July 1917. 5 reels. 72 minutes. Alpha's nice Kodascope cutdown runs 60 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A New York railroad magnate's spoiled, twenty-year-old son is a mad western freak who fondly imagines that America's West is still wild and woolly – and he wants to be part of the action! COMMENT: A movie that pokes fun at itself even way back in 1917? Fortunately, Alpha have a very good print of this one – even if it is a nice 4-reel Kodascope black and white cutdown. It would be great to see a tinted original, but I think prospects there are dim. Be thankful that Oldies have unearthed such a good print! Most of Kodak's cuts seem to have been made in the New York scenes. Anyway, the movie itself as we now have it, is a viewer's delight from go to whoa. The direction is brisk, the script witty, the actors most capable, and Fairbanks himself comes across in fine form. If you've never seen a Fairbanks movie of this vintage, you'll be surprised at how sophisticated it is, both in the making and the telling. In fact it's hard to decide which is the more amusing – the on screen action or the titles that wryly comment upon it all.