Risos e Tristezas

W.C. Fields was never at his best in the silent film medium, but It's the Old Army Game is nonetheless a treat for his fans, revealing our hero in characteristic form as he offers early versions of routines later perfected in talkie classics The Pharmacist and It's a Gift. The Great Man himself looks quite youthful here, still trim in his mid-40s and quite stylish in his checked trousers and straw boater, although he also sports the unfortunate mustache he wore in all his silent comedies. Like The Cocoanuts, the stage vehicle and subsequent movie debut for The Marx Brothers, the plot of this film was inspired by the Florida land boom, a highly topical subject in the 1920s. It's the Old Army Game is built around a satirical twist, however: instead of New Yorkers snapping up cheap land in Florida, we find Florida residents snapping up cheap real estate in New York! In any case, Fields' movies were never valued for their plots, it's the gag sequences that count. This film's highlights include our hero's repeatedly thwarted attempts to take a nap on his back porch, a rather nasty confrontation with an obnoxious baby in a stroller, a very messy picnic on the lawn of a ritzy estate, and traffic difficulties filmed on location in midtown Manhattan. The porch bit is something of a dry run for the immortal sequence in It's a Gift, but here's where the silent version suffers in comparison to the talkie remake: much of the humor depends on abrupt, irritating bursts of noise, so by its very nature this routine, which was first performed on stage, wasn't ideal for silent cinema.

Incidentally, during the traffic sequence Fields has an encounter with a fellow motorist who is done up in stereotypical Jewish costume, complete with derby and grizzled beard. Happily, and surprisingly, their encounter turns out to be benign, without the heavy-handed ethnic humor that mars so many comedies of the period. The gent in the derby owns a junk wagon pulled by a mule, and when Fields has auto trouble the gent tries to help out. The situation does not end happily for our hero, but that's no one's fault but his own.

Broadway buffs will be interested to find that the leading man is William Gaxton, best known for his stage performance in the Gershwin musical "Of Thee I Sing," but Gaxton never had much of a movie career and frankly doesn't register strongly in this role. Then again, he was up against formidable competition, not only from Fields but from his leading lady, Louise Brooks. A major bonus of this film is the sight of this beautiful young woman in her prime. There's a memorable scene featuring Brooks and Gaxton skipping a picnic so they can romp in the woods. Every close-up of Louise is worth the price of admission-- that is, if you can find a copy of this movie in the first place. Like all too many W.C. Fields films, It's the Old Army Game is not readily available in any home-viewable format. I saw it about ten years ago at the American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York. We were told before the screening that the film was still in the process of restoration, "a work in progress" soon to be completed. For the first hour or so the image looked clean and bright, but then suddenly we found ourselves watching a heavily scratched and yellowed 16mm print for the last portion. I hope the restoration work was completed, but haven't heard of any public screenings since. In any case, here's a film ripe for recovery and rediscovery!

Back in 1988, Paramount released a handful of their classic silent film titles on VHS. Of the 8 titles made available, only one, Erich von Stroheim's THE WEDDING MARCH, has yet to make it to DVD or Blu-Ray. In that 1988 set was the W. C. Fields comedy RUNNING WILD from 1927. Fields made 8 silent films for Paramount between 1924 and 1928 of which four are now lost. IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME (1926) had been considered a lost movie until its recent rediscovery. Cult icon Louise Brooks has a prominent supporting role in this, and might have had more to do with its restoration and DVD release than the fact it's a Fields film.

"The Old Army Game" is an old slang term for a con such as the shell game where Fields outsmarts the huckster or a big swindle like the one Louise Brooks' boyfriend engages in by selling Florida swampland to the townspeople. The movie is really about capturing two classic Fields vaudeville sketches on celluloid. The first is "Sleeping On the Porch" where he tries to go to sleep in various locations while trying to escape a variety of loud noises. The second is "The Picnic" where he and his family have a picnic on the lawn of a private estate, damaging most of the property in the process. Both routines would reappear in his 1934 sound film IT'S A GIFT.

Fields plays Elmer Prettywillie (another of his great character names), a small town druggist with an aggravating group of customers. Louise Brooks is his young and attractive clerk whose spinster aunt (Blanche Ring) has a crush on Fields. A real estate hustler (William Gaxton) arrives in town and falls in love with Brooks so she persuades Fields to let her boyfriend sell real estate out of his drugstore. When the boyfriend is arrested for fraud, Fields must drive to New York City to try and straighten things out. Not used to NYC traffic, he gets involved in a series of accidents and winds up destroying his car completely. The bit with the mule is priceless.

The film was shot at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Queens and on location in Manhattan. Louise Brooks was 20 years old at the time and had known Fields for many years as they both worked in the Ziegfeld Follies. She respected him and had nothing but good things to say about Fields (a rarity for Brooks) and he treated her with a fatherly concern. William Gaxton in his first movie playing the boyfriend was a rather dull affair but the character parts featuring a number of Fields' longtime cronies are marvelous. The director, Eddie Sutherland, would later marry Brooks (his second of 5 wives) but they remained married less than 2 years.

As mentioned earlier, IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME was long considered a lost film until a copy was located in the Library of Congress. Back in 2018, thirty years after they first offered their silent movies on VHS, Paramount decided to release restored versions of some of their titles on DVD. They include THE COVERED WAGON, OLD IRONSIDES, BEGGARS OF LIFE (Louise Brooks' best American film), three Gloria Swanson movies, RUNNING WILD, and the oddball comedy WHAT WOMEN WANT. The discs were released in partnership with Kino and while not fully restored, all the movies look remarkably good...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

Plenty of solid good bits from WC Fields gun prior to talkies a lot of the skits that were done in this movie we're done later and Takis

Classic stuff

The version I have is an excellent print from a showing in Oregon. It runs 105 minutes (not the 70 or 77 minutes mentioned on IMDb) and boasts a nice, live piano performance by Keith Taylor. This film was considered to be lost for many decades but exists in a very nice print.

This film is basically a forerunner of the hilarious 1934 film, IT'S A GIFT, but is based on a play entitled "The Comic Supplement." As with most W.C. Fields material, the story here is a mish-mash from several sources and his own stage routines.

Fields started filing a couple of his stage routines in 1915 as shorts but was not successful, In 1924 he landed a small but effective role in Marion Davies' JANICE MEREDITH. He finally landed a starring role in a feature film the following year in SALLY OF THE SAWDUST, a version of his stage hit "Poppy." He appeared fairly regularly through the end of his silent films in 1928.

Here Fields plays a small-town druggist who is much put upon by his family (a sister and nephew), a local spinster, and the town at large. His only good relationship is with Brooks, who works in his store. As with most Fields films, his only close relationships is with a grown daughter or young lady.

In a subplot, a real estate sharpie (William Gaxton) comes to town and falls for Brooks. He talks Fields into letting him use his store to sell New York City lots (not Florida, as mentioned elsewhere). Of course Gaxton is hauled away by the law and Fields feels compelled to pay back the money to all the "investors" who have been bilked.

As with IT'S A GIFT, we have scenes on the back porch where Fields is trying to sleep, the nagging and odious family (Mary Foy, Mickey Bennett), and a prolonged picnic scene on the grounds of a private estate. This version also has Fields hassling with NYC traffic (the wrong way on a one way street) as he ventures to right the wrongs of Gaxton.

Of course Gaxton is freed and the investors all become rich, so when Fields returns to town and sees the crowds, he's afraid they are out to get him. This leads to a chase scene where Fields ends up in jail.

Heavy on the sentimental melodrama, IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME is not really a comedy, but a film with comic scenes. Fields never really became a comedian until the talkies, where his films were trimmed of melodrama and his famous rasping voice finally gave him a personality. His decades-long stage career was spent mainly as a silent juggler.

Yet Fields is certainly impressive here (as he was in SALLY OF THE SAWDUST) but the meandering storyline doesn't help much. Louise Brooks is just stunning here as the small-town girl. Gaxton and Foy are OK. Bennett is a little brat, and Blanche Ring is funny as the fluttery spinster who pines for Fields. Also funny is one of Fields favorites, Elise Cavanna as the near-sighted woman who wants a 2-cent stamp.

"It's the Old Army Game" is a W.C. Fields silent film I just found on YouTube. While Fields' sort of humor is best when you can hear him, he made quite a few silents as well. When I saw this one, I wasn't too surprised to see him with a ridiculous black mustache...he sometimes wore this Little Tramp-like 'stach in his silent movies. But I was surprised to see how thin and young he looked. In addition to Fields, Louise Brooks starred in this one...one of the few American movies in which she starred during her rather brief career. And, I must admit that the cameraman really seemed to like her...and the shots with her in it were often radiant.

Fields plays Elmer Prettywillie*, a top hat-wearing druggist. The story is much like his sound classic "It's a Gift", where there isn't a lot of plot...just Fields being Fields as a shop owner. In fact, some of this was used almost exactly in the later film...such as the balcony sequence where Mr. Prettywillie is trying to sleep. Some might dislike this lack of plot, but I think it showcases Fields' talents best and is quite enjoyable. And, later, there is a plot...and it's also a reworking of the plot in the second half of "It's a Gift". In "It's a Gift", Fields' character buys land in California to have an orange plantation...only to discover that the land is barren and seemingly useless. Here in "It's the Old Army Game", he convinces his neighbors to buy land...only to realize later that it might be a con game that he's convinced everyone in which to invest! And, like the later film, he manages to work his way out of the mess...and turns out to be the hero. But, instead of heading to California ((like in the latter film), he heads to New York City.

So is it any good? Yes....very good. While I do think the remake was actually a major improvement in several ways, it's a very enjoyable movie. How did I prefer the remake? Well, it wasn't just sound...although with Fields' style of humor, sound DOES help a lot. Part of it was the pacing. While both films have a slow, meandering sort of style, "It's the Old Army Game" seemed like it could use a bit more editing to pick up the pace. Also, the park/mansion scene seemed MUCH better in the remake...in this film, they just came off as big jerks and it wasn't funny. Sill, overall a very enjoyable movie...one of the comedian's best silents...and well worth seeing.

*Fields often created the most ridiculous names for his and other characters. Prettywillie is odd...but no more so than Mahatma Kane Jeeves (the name he used for himself as writer of "The Bank Dick"), Cuthbert J. Twillie and Egbert Sousé. My favorite was J. Pinkerton Snoopington....the perfect name for the bank examiner in "The Bank Dick".