With Will Rogers in Dublin (1927)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
In 1927 actor Will Rogers went on a European tour where he was to lecture at several stops and he signed a deal with Pathe who would send a camera crew along with him. These twelve films would eventually be released in a series with this here being the first. Being the first, the format here would pretty much stay the same throughout the twelve movies with Rogers walking onto a stage and inviting the American viewers to travel with him. We then jump to Dublin where Rogers introduces us to their President, W.T. Cosgrave, as well as the Vice President. After this we visit the memorials for Michael Collins, the Chairman of the Provisional Government who was assassinated while in office and Arthur Griffith, the President of the Irish Republic who died in office, both in 1922 and just twelve days apart. As usual, there are many one-liners from Rogers who hopefully didn't write all of them because many fall flat on their face. With that said, even in silent form Rogers has enough charm to just jump off the screen and we do get to see some nice images of Dublin. I think some of the cinematography is rather poor but this too would improve as the series moved on.
