The Show-Off

George Kelly's often-revived witty 1924 play was filmed no less than 4 times, attesting to the durability of its comedy content. This is the first filming, a silent movie with Ford Sterling as the blowhard liar, saying anything to make himself look great at all times. Of course, he fools no one except Lois Wilson, who has stars in her eyes and loves him. Her mother and father dislike him, while the other clerks at the office call him "Carnation Charlie" because he wears carnations like all the executives, which he claims to be outside of his office. So Sterling and Wilson marry, but have trouble paying all the bills. Tragedy strikes when Wilson's father dies, so the couple plan to move back into her mother's house. As luck would have it, Sterling does win a car that was being raffled off. In what is surely the funniest sequence in the movie, he picks the car up not knowing how to drive, causes some accidents by driving in the wrong lane, has the traffic cop running for his life trying the evade his car, and finally crashes the car against a building pinning the cop. At his court hearing, the judge asks for witnesses against him to stand up and most of the packed courthouse stand. To set an example, the judge sentences him to 3 months or $500, but because of Sterling's bluster, doubles the fine. Wilson's brother (Gregory Kelly) pays the fine with the $1000 check his father gave him before he died, to use to pay the mortgage. He feels that it's better to lose the house than to have a family member go to jail. Kelly had been dabbling with a rust-proof paint but was having trouble convincing steel executives to use his process. To make amends, Sterling goes to the steel people to see what he can do, just as the banker comes with papers to foreclose on the mortgage.

The film also features the legendary beautiful Louise Brooks as (literally) the girl next door, sort of Kelly's girl since they are always seen together. It's a small role, but she's a pleasure to watch. Sterling was a knockabout comedian who played the chief of the Keystone Kops under Mack Sennett, but plays this role very much like it was written. I saw a stage production of the play in 1995 at Baltimore's prestigious Center Stage and noted it was a one-set play. This film opens up the play, and we see parts of Philadelphia, and also see the wonderful car episode and and court trial, while you just hear about it in the play. These sequences alone make the film worth watching. Kino International distributes a video with a snappy violin and piano score, which I saw on a cable channel.

The chief reason to see Malcolm St. Clair's production of The Show-Off today is the presence of luminous Louise Brooks, who (as usual) lights up the screen with an intensity and beauty that far exceeds the requirements of her small "girl next door" role. Ford Sterling (best known as the chief of the Keystone Kops) plays the title part, and he does very little (until it is far too late) to make the character even remotely likable. His Aubrey Piper is such an insufferable blowhard that Brooks' vicious admonishment of his boorish behavior is one of the film's highlights.

The earliest film adaptation of George Kelly's Broadway comedy, and is the only silent version. (There are three other versions in 1934, 1946, and "Men Are Like That" by Herman Mankiewicz in 1930). It tells the story of a bragger, causing his family to fall into a dreadful situation, and finally make it up. The story is very old-fashioned and so has not been adapted since the 1950s, it is "expired" like the playwright. Though the protagonist is annoying, the narrative is smooth and Louise Brooks is gorgeous too, it is still worth watching. (04/07)

I also saw this on the DVD double in which it is paired with Clara Bow's "The Plastic Age". That is the one I mainly wanted to see, as I only recently became aware of the incredible talents of Bow in "It" and "Wings". But "The Show Off" was the better of the two, solely for the talent and charisma of Louise Brooks in a supporting role.

I thought of Bix Biederbeck, popular at the same time, the Jazz age of the '20s, in watching Louise in this rather trifling comedy. Bix played in some competent bands, but when he began playing his solo, it had the glitter of a diamond that still has the power to excite to this day and elevated the material to greatness. And Louise Brooks, playing the good and sensible girl next door, has that same brilliant quality in every gesture and expression, however subtle. She would of course go on to star in some much heavier films as a vamp or a "fallen woman" and is considered one of the great silent stars because of those roles, but her early performance here is just a joy to behold.

BTW, Clara Bow is also wonderful in "The Plastic Age". It's a shame that more of her films aren't available for viewing, she was a great actress and a groundbreaking star.

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).