The Fair Co-Ed - 1927

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Sam Wood

Writers: George Ade (play), Joseph Farnham (titles), Byron Morgan

Stars: Marion Davies, Johnny Mack Brown and Jane Winton

Release Date: 23 October 1927 (USA)

Also known as: Die blonde Kollegin (Áustria), La gloria del colegio (Spain), Loira Caloira (Portugal)

Production companies: Cosmopolitan Productions (for) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Comedy

Plot Keywords: Based On Play

Another terrific comedy for Marion Davies. Interesting plot has Davies go off to college where she joins the basketball team to be near the coach, Johnny Mack Brown. She instantly makes a rival of Jane Winton, who's also interested in Brown. Davies (in a William Haines sort of role) refuses to play with Winton and after being chided quits the team rather than play with Winton.

The team begins to lose, to the delight of Davies, and as the "big game" approaches she hears the students razzing her at a pep rally. Davies swallows her pride and re-joins the team but the girls won't play with her. During the half-time Brown tries to gets the girls to make up. Davies admits she's been a cluck and all is forgiven.

Interesting role-reversal for 1927 with the women's basketball team seemingly the idol of the co-ed campus (no men's team is mentioned). Davies and Winton spar over the love interest (Brown). Davies does her usual great comedic work here but also has an incredibly physical role. That's really MARION DAVIES playing basketball: running, shooting baskets, reaching for toss-ups. 

Trivia

The original Broadway production of "The Fair Co-Ed" by George Ade opened at the Knickerbocker Theater on February 1, 1909 and ran for 136 performances.

Post No Bills - 1923

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Ralph Ceder

Stars: James Parrott, Marie Mosquini and Jack Ackroyd

Release Date: 5 August 1923 (USA)

Production Co: Hal Roach Studios

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Short | Comedy

James Parrott is also known as "Paul Parrott" and those in the know may remember him as the director of many of Laurel and Hardy's best films (such as the Oscar-winning MUSIC BOX as well as HELPMATES and PARDON US). However, before directing Stan and Ollie, his brother Charley Chase, the Little Rascals and others, he was a silent comedian himself--having appeared in well over a hundred films!

This and another Parrott short (SHIVER AND SHAKE) are part of a new DVD set entitled "American Slapstick". However, unlike SHIVER AND SHAKE, POST NO BILLS is very funny and well worth seeing. The film begins with a very selfish and lazy Parrott calling in a false alarm to the fire company just so he can hitch a ride! Then, when he arrives at work, his nasty boss informs him that the people who were supposed to post bills around town advertising the theater couldn't make it and Parrott was expected to do it instead...or else! This sequence with the boss is the poorest in the film as it had LOTS of low-brow and unnecessary slapstick--people getting kicked in the butt repeatedly for no reason. This was comedy gold around 1915, but by 1923, it was already rather passé.

Despite this problem, the rest of the film was great. Seeing the lazy and rather amoral Parrott posting bills EVERYWHERE and in the most clever ways was funny. Not only did he post them on fences and walls (where they usually went) but he posted them secretly on people's butts, on cars and countless other silly places. I particularly liked the banana and the shoeshine gags--they were pretty clever.

The Little Pest - 1927

Country: United States

Language: English

Directors: Jay Belasco, Scott Darling

Stars: Neely Edwards, Consuelo Dawn and Billy Kent Schaefer

Release Date: 10 January 1927 (USA)

Production Co: Universal Pictures

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Comedy | Short

Famous Authors - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - 1920s

Country: United States
A silent educational film about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his birthplace in Portland, Maine. To purchase a clean DVD or digital download of this film for personal home use or educational use only contact us at questions@archivesfarms.com. To license footage from this film for commercial use visit: www.travelfilmarchive.com

Glimpses of Persons, Places and Events During Conferences at Paris, 1918-1919

Country: United States
Reel 1 shows E.M. House and aides at his Paris office. Premier Clemenceau and Marshal Foch leave No. 10 Downing Street. Shows views of the hotels Elysees-Palace, Crillon, and Ritz in Paris. Admiral Benson and Henry White leave the Crillon. Premier Orlando and Baron Sonnino of Italy, Lloyd George and David Balfour, Gen. Tasker Bliss, Robert Lansing, President and Mrs. Wilson, Adm. Grayson, Clemenceau, Pres. Poincare, Minister of Foreign Affairs Pichon, and Arthur J. Balfour arrive at the Quai d'Orsay, Paris, to open the peace conference. Reel 2 shows Japanese Ambassador Matsui; Henry White, Foch, Lansing, Arthur Balfour, Adm. Benson, Gen. Bliss, and others at the Quai d'Orsay. Poincare departs. President and Mrs. Wilson arrive. Clemenceau leaves. Secretary of the Navy Daniels and Admiral Benson arrive at the Ritz. President Wilson, Dr. Wellington Koo, Ignace Paderewski, and the Greek delegate Venizelos arrive at the Crillon. King George V is greeted at a Paris station by President Poincare and rides through the streets. Poincare greets King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of Belgium at the station. The royalty ride in a procession. Victor Emmanuel III arrives by train. Scope notes and description by National Archives and Records Administration.

Jonah Jones - 1924

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Fred Hibbard

Writer: Fred Hibbard

Stars: Lloyd Hamilton, Babe London and Dorothy Seastrom

Release Date: 21 September 1924 (USA)

Production Co: Lloyd Hamilton Corporation

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Short | Comedy

This two-reeler is one of several Lloyd Hamilton comedies recently restored and made available on DVD as part of a set called "Ham: The Lost Magic of Lloyd Hamilton." JONAH JONES is one of the better films in the set, although its impact is slightly diminished by a chunk of missing footage at the beginning of Reel Two that renders the plot a little confusing and, worse, wrecks one of Ham's sight gags. Still, there's plenty here to enjoy, and for those who've never seen this neglected comic at work the film presents him in his characteristic role, i.e. that of the well-meaning schnook who can't get a break and almost never wins.

Set in the bucolic countryside, the opening sequence introduces Ham and his girlfriend Babe London as "the hired man and his three acres of love." (Miss London, best remembered as Oliver Hardy's hefty fiancée in OUR WIFE, made a career out of serving as the butt of jokes about her weight.) After a number of gags about cars, cows, and accidentally swallowed cigarettes, the plot proper gets under way when Ham encounters an attractive, prosperous-looking young lady who is having car trouble. After gallantly fixing her flat tire he leans against a nearby fence and waves her on with an insouciant, even cocky grin; moments later, the young lady crashes through the gate and dumps Ham into a mud puddle. This gag sums up Ham's comic Modus Operandi in a nutshell: even when the guy wins, he loses. But when he realizes that the young lady has left her purse behind with her address inside he sets out to return it, no doubt hoping for a reward, either monetary or romantic. 

I'm The Sheriff - 1927

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Erle C. Kenton

Writer: Sidney Smith (cartoon)

Stars: Joe Murphy, Fay Tincher and Billy Butts

Release Date: 7 March 1927 (USA)

Production Co: Samuel Van Ronkel Productions

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Comedy | Short

Trivia

Eleventh episode, third series, of The Gumps 2-reel series

Connections

Follows Uncle Bim's Gifts (1923); Watch Papa (1923); Oh! What a Day! (1923); Aggravatin' Mama (1923); Oh! Min! (1924); What's the Use? (1924); Andy's Temptation (1924); A Day of Rest (1924); Westbound (1924); Andy's Hat in the Ring (1924); Andy's Stump Speech (1924); Andy in Hollywood (1925); Andy's Lion Tale (1925); Chester's Donkey Party (1925); Dynamited (1925); Andy Takes a Flyer (1925); The Smash-Up (1925); Min's Home on the Cliff (1926); Min Walks in Her Sleep (1926); California Here We Come (1926); Shady Rest (1926); Min's Away (1926); Dumb Luck (1926); Tow Service (1926); Never Again (1926); Lots of Grief (1926); Better Luck (1926); The Big Surprise (1926); A Close Call (1926); I Told You So (1926); Rooms for Rent (1927); Up Against It (1927); Youth and Beauty (1927); Broke Again (1927).

Followed by Circus Daze (1927); Too Much Sleep (1927); A Battle Scared Hero (1927); When Greek Meets Greek (1927); And How! (1927); Ocean Bruises (1927); A Total Loss (1927); Andy Nose His Onions (1927); The Mild West (1927); A Case of Scotch (1928); Any Old Count (1928); The Cloud Buster (1928); Out in the Rain (1928).