Risos e Tristezas

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.

Once thought lost, this W.C. Fields silent comedy was later remade (more or less) as It's a Gift. Here he's a pharmacist instead of a grocer (I think the short The Pharmacist also re-uses elements from this one), and some of the gags are different. There's a subplot about Fields investing in a real estate scam. The guy who's running it (William Gaxton) has a romantic subplot with Louise Brooks, who works as Fields' counter girl. Alas, Fields without his voice is barely half as funny. His attitude remains identical, but his acerbic line readings are gone. It also doesn't help that the version presented on Youtube is run at a slow speed, making the film much longer than it should be. I wouldn't recommend it.

The big surprise for me when viewing the KINO release of the 1926 W.C. Fields comedy IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME was how beautiful the print is. For the most part it is pristine. For any Fields fan who is familiar with his classic sound feature IT'S A GIFT there is much to compare and enjoy in this silent rendering. No doubt the routines work better with sound and polishing but it's fun to see it being attempted without the sound. Fields looks youthful and fit. Louise Brooks is not only beautiful but very animated and delightful in this her fourth film. The Ben Model pipe organ score works very well and is authentic to the way many audiences would have experienced the film originally.. The only Extra is a commentary track by author James L. Neilbaur. It has its original tinting. If you are a fan of Fields or comedy from the silent era then this release is worth taking a look at. The film title don't really do justice to the film content but it is explained during the course of the film.





























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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.