The Show-Off

It would appear that the 2000 Image DVD and the Amazon streams of these two titles are currently not available which is unfortunate as both movies have more to offer than simply Louise Brooks and Clara Bow. Both films are middle-of-the-road Paramount releases from the mid-1920s and are great examples of the type of everyday fare available to the audiences of that time. Both movies were directed by solid studio craftsmen who held no pretensions of creating high art, Malcolm St. Clair who would later work with Laurel & Hardy, and Wesley Ruggles (brother of character actor Charlie Ruggles) who went on to direct the Oscar winning adaptation of Edna Ferber's CIMMARON in 1931.

THE SHOW OFF was made in 1926 as a rare starring vehicle for Ford Sterling. Sterling began his career as a circus clown before drifting into movies around 1912. He is best remembered today as the harried Police Chief of the Keystone Kops. In this movie he plays an obnoxious braggart who, after nearly destroying his in-laws' lives, is given one last chance to prove himself. This was Louise Brooks' second supporting part for Paramount after IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME with W. C. Fields. The plot hinges on her key scene with Sterling that leads to his redemption. An added bonus is the location shooting in Philadelphia showing the city as it was at that time. In his characterization, Sterling looks and comes across as a silent film version of Dan Ackroyd.

THE PLASTIC AGE dates from 1925 and was based on a best selling book about college students. As such it provides a fascinating time capsule of campus life back then. While the settings and fashions have certainly changed, the "party hearty' attitude of young people away from home has not. This was the role that landed Clara Bow her contract at Paramount where she would go on to make 19 films before the advent of sound in 1929. She naturally plays a party girl who diverts a Freshman athlete (Donald Keith) from his studies which nearly leads to his ruin. Also on hand are D. W. Griffith regulars Mary Alden and Henry B. Walthal as the concerned parents. A young, easily recognizable Clark Gable can be spotted as an extra in the locker room scenes.

The quality of the two prints utilized for this release could not be more different. THE SHOW OFF is in excellent condition, having been taken from an original 35mm print. THE PLASTIC AGE comes from a worn 16mm print that was originally part of the Killiam Collection. The Killiam Collection pioneered silent film preservation back in the 1960s. The movie follows the standard pattern of tinting day scenes sepia while night scenes are tinted blue. While it suffers in comparison to THE SHOW OFF, THE PLASTIC AGE is more than watchable and it preserves a quintessential Clara Bow performance. The idea of combining Louise Brooks and Clara Bow on a DVD double feature was inspired. Hopefully these movies will return to circulation soon...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

This film was based on a play that has been around a long time and been made into films on several occasions. As far as I know, this is the earliest version, though I know they also made a 1930 version as well as an awful one in 1934 (starring Spencer Tracy) and yet another in 1946 with Red Skelton. I've seen the 1934 version and had I realized that this 1926 film was essentially the same plot, I probably wouldn't have watched it! That's because the 1934 film was horrible--with Tracy playing the most obnoxious and detestable character I can think of one film! While the plot is very similar to the 1934 film which I disliked, there is enough different about it so that I do recommend you see this film. First, this is a rare case where a film is better as a silent because listening to the title character brag and talk incessantly really gets on your nerves when it's a talkie. But, silencing the guy made it much more bearable. Also, the intensity of his boorishness is less in this film, as Tracy (still relatively new to acting) actually way over-played the part. Ford Sterling, in contrast, had a performance that was a bit more comical as well as not so unlikable.

I won't say much about the plot, as I don't want to spoil it. However, here's the basic outline: Sterling plays a braggart who is always making it sound as if he's a big-wig with the railroad. In reality, he's just another clerk. He manages to convince a dim girl from a nice family that he's rich and successful, so she marries him. Only after the wedding does she realize who he really is. Unfortunately, like for them is tough, as Sterling can't support them with his meager salary and extravagant spending. What happens next and how he manages to turn things around is just something you'll need to see for yourself.

A good film, though one that you don't need to rush to see. And please, do NOT see the 1934 version unless you are a glutton for punishment!

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)

Viewing photos of young women living during the Jazz Age, with their flapper attire and bob haircuts, today's viewers could easily select actress Louise Brooks as the prototype modern female of the Roaring '20s. In photos and in the movies, Ms. Brooks possessed the definitive swagger and confidence of that wild era. Along with her looks and unique style, Brooks rode the wave of stardom in the mid-to-late 1920s.

No finer example of her unique screen persona while she was just getting into cinema is on full display in August 1926's "The Show-Off." Brooks plays the girlfriend of a next door neighbor family's son whose sister is dating a braggart, loud-mouth phony. The entire clan, including Brooks, knows the sister Amy's (Lois Wilson) boyfriend is a complete ass. She ends up marrying Aubrey (Ford Sterling) almost to spite her parents, who detests the man. Things get interesting when Aubrey wins a car at a raffle, but is clueless how to drive it. An amusing sequence of him trying to maneuver the vehicle all over the place, including driving the wrong direction in a one-way street, lands him in court.

The movie and the 1924 play, which has been adapted four times for film, is set in North Philadelphia. The George Kelly Broadway stage play was a huge hit and ran for 571 performances. "The Show-Off' was voted for a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, but its sponsor, Columbia University, withdrew the sure win, citing a comedy was not becoming of the illustrious prize, despite an immediate uproar to reverse decision.

"The Show-Off" stayed pretty close to the play even though the inter titles were spare, despite evidence of the yapping in the silent movie being extensive. Brooks is the first to call Aubrey out with her honesty and decisive demeanor. The Kansas-born actress was 15-years-old when she became a member of a Los Angeles modern dance troupe, globetrotting throughout London and Paris before latching on to the Ziegfeld Follies two years later. A Paramount Pictures' producer noticed her and signed her to a five year contract. The producer, Walter Wanger, invited her to a cocktail party where she met Charlie Chaplin, recently married to Lita Grey. The two hit it off and had a two-month affair. "The Show-Off" was her fifth movie for Paramount, exhibiting a unique screen presence like no other actress had done before.

Actor Gregory Kelly plays Brooks' boyfriend in the movie, where he has invented a formula for a rust-inhibitor. Kelly was the first husband to actress Ruth Gordon, meeting her on the New York stage. Kelly, primarily a stage actor, was in only two movies, "The Show-Off" being his last. He died of heart disease a year after making the movie at 35.

Ford Sterling, as the show-off, was the original police chief in the Keystone Cops in 1912. Many critics who have seen the remakes of the George Kelly play, including the 1934 "The Show-Off" with Spencer Tracy, and the 1946 version with Red Skelton, claim Sterling's portrayal of a loud-mouth was the best. Talkies tend to make obnoxious blowhards unbearable to hear constantly. Sterling reputation as being the best blowhard may be because members of the audiences are spared with his constant loud harping ringing the ears of the most patient viewer.

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).