"Nothing But the Truth" (1929) is an early soundie with Richard Dix as a stockbroker who lies so much to sell his share of stocks in his company that he barely knows the meaning of truth. His partner, Berton Churchill, is also father to the woman Dix hopes to marry in the near future, Dorothy Hall. BUT - due to the fact that Churchill is invested by $100,000 in Quicksilver mine stocks and needs desperately to divest himself of such, the company is asked to help. Dix thinks the stock is garbage. Due to several incidents leading up to the plot driver, it comes about that a bet is now put upon Dix between him and Churchill, Ned Sparks, and Louis John Bartels, a bet of $10,000 that Dix can't tell the absolute, absolute truth for 24 straight hours! Of course, the $10,000 Dix bets actually belongs to Hall (Churchill's daughter, remember), though she's somewhat "borrowed" it in turn from a fund for an orphanage. It's getting too complicated to explain much further. This is somewhat stage-bound by today's standards, but I must say that this is really a very delightful old-fashioned farce, and Dix is definitely up to the challenge. It may be much more in the future Cary Grant's type of comedy, but Dix shows that he had much more acting chops than the rather over-ripe performance of two years later in "Cimarron" or even his nicely performed parts in "The Whistler" series. He'd done silent comedy before, and actually quite well, in such shows as "The Lucky Devil" and others, but he went out of silents with a roar in "Redskin" and into sound with plenty of oomph in 1929 with this film, "Seven Keys to Baldpate" and others.
Though Dorothy Hall plays the love foil in "Nothing But the Truth", it's actually Helen 'Babe' Kane and Wynne Gibson who are the featured ladies, playing a sister-pair who are in showbusiness and are looking for a backer, and who look to Churchill to back them - - - and this behind the back, so to speak, of Churchill's daughter, Hall, and wife, Madeline Grey. This all adds plenty to the complications already set afoot by the bet with Dix.
Genuinely a pleasant surprise and wonderful 78 minute watch. Recommended. Hopefully, someone will eventually release this in a decent, cleaned-up format.
