This Frank Capra fellow just keeps getting better and better. This quick, 56 minute long feature is a real little gem of Capra's early career, further refining his combination of comedy and drama around winning performances. It's also another portrait of the little guy winning over the big guy, even if the win isn't exactly the way one might expect. I think he's already got an authorial stamp, though there's no need to discount Elmer Harris who had written every film Capra had made since leaving Harry Langdon's employ.
Don Wilson (Johnnie Walker) is famous on Broadway for his blackface performances, and he's so tired of the fame and the women throwing themselves at him for it, that he happily agrees to take a weekend in the country with his producer Arnold (Ernest Halliard) where they end up stopping outside the makeshift tent of the traveling acting troupe led by Jasper Bolivar (Lionel Balmore) and his daughter Ginger (Bessie Love). They lead their troupe in a Civil War play of such amateurishness that it derisively entertains the little traveling party, with the added benefit of Don getting a tiny role in the play when ginger fires the actor, using the false name of Harry Mann, and getting some good laughs in the process. It gives Arnold the idea of bringing the troupe to Broadway to add to the revue.
So, like most of Capra's films up to this point, this is essentially a two-act production. In this, the first half is the more purely comic take on what's going on with Don having a whale of a time making Ginger flustered during the performance, getting laughs from his friends, and the rest of the provincial audience taking it more seriously (though with Capra still getting some very good comedy out of them at the same time, like the elderly man who can't hear even with his ear horn and the young son who lies to him about what people are saying). There's been a certain imbalance to Capra's films where one half works materially better than the other, and I think this might represent something of a serious change for him. For, while I do think the second half works better than the first, it's actually the second that I end up having more problems with. It's just that the second half's highs are so very high at the same time that Capra and Harris were refining their output in a way that was really conducive to bringing all of the elements together.
The Bolivar performers come to Broadway with Don maintaining the farce that he's just nobody Harry Mann by using his blackface to appear before them as Don and taking it off when he must appear before them as Harry. There's a masquerade where Jasper drinks too much, and we get to their premiere the next day. The premiere is exactly what the audience would expect with the cosmopolitan crowd taking in the pratfalls of the provincial troupe bumbling their way through the performance with Don in blackface mugging in the background, and it's all countered by Jasper attending the performance in the crowd, highly expectant of a great reception and getting derision instead. It's surprisingly crushing to watch, and it's all cut together in the middle of this botched performance that is really funny at the same time. I think this is successful tonal whiplash, intentionally throwing the audience back and forth making us both part of the problem in enjoying the pain of the poor provincial actors not understanding why they're being laughed at while also sympathizing with them in equal measure.
So, by losing, they end up winning because they teach Don a lesson who decides that he has to make up for it later.
It's another instance of the little guy beating the big guy, but it's done in a way that is more of a moral victory than a literal one. They don't take over Broadway, but Ginger does win over Don's heart, and Don gets Ginger to forgive him his part.
It was during Jasper's pain that I decided that this was the film for me. I think the whiplash works, but I'm just ever so slightly put off by it at the same time, and the ending wrap up feels a bit thin, though I do buy it overall.
It really is kind of amazing to see Capra forming so distinctly and executing so well so early. He feels like he's in complete command of the physical production from the subtle and effective direction of actors to the clear use of visual language (even a couple of jokes through intertitles), and his scripts are creeping up in quality at the same time. I shudder to think of how sound is going to send everything backwards, and it's just right around the corner.
Don Wilson (Johnnie Walker) is famous on Broadway for his blackface performances, and he's so tired of the fame and the women throwing themselves at him for it, that he happily agrees to take a weekend in the country with his producer Arnold (Ernest Halliard) where they end up stopping outside the makeshift tent of the traveling acting troupe led by Jasper Bolivar (Lionel Balmore) and his daughter Ginger (Bessie Love). They lead their troupe in a Civil War play of such amateurishness that it derisively entertains the little traveling party, with the added benefit of Don getting a tiny role in the play when ginger fires the actor, using the false name of Harry Mann, and getting some good laughs in the process. It gives Arnold the idea of bringing the troupe to Broadway to add to the revue.
So, like most of Capra's films up to this point, this is essentially a two-act production. In this, the first half is the more purely comic take on what's going on with Don having a whale of a time making Ginger flustered during the performance, getting laughs from his friends, and the rest of the provincial audience taking it more seriously (though with Capra still getting some very good comedy out of them at the same time, like the elderly man who can't hear even with his ear horn and the young son who lies to him about what people are saying). There's been a certain imbalance to Capra's films where one half works materially better than the other, and I think this might represent something of a serious change for him. For, while I do think the second half works better than the first, it's actually the second that I end up having more problems with. It's just that the second half's highs are so very high at the same time that Capra and Harris were refining their output in a way that was really conducive to bringing all of the elements together.
The Bolivar performers come to Broadway with Don maintaining the farce that he's just nobody Harry Mann by using his blackface to appear before them as Don and taking it off when he must appear before them as Harry. There's a masquerade where Jasper drinks too much, and we get to their premiere the next day. The premiere is exactly what the audience would expect with the cosmopolitan crowd taking in the pratfalls of the provincial troupe bumbling their way through the performance with Don in blackface mugging in the background, and it's all countered by Jasper attending the performance in the crowd, highly expectant of a great reception and getting derision instead. It's surprisingly crushing to watch, and it's all cut together in the middle of this botched performance that is really funny at the same time. I think this is successful tonal whiplash, intentionally throwing the audience back and forth making us both part of the problem in enjoying the pain of the poor provincial actors not understanding why they're being laughed at while also sympathizing with them in equal measure.
So, by losing, they end up winning because they teach Don a lesson who decides that he has to make up for it later.
It's another instance of the little guy beating the big guy, but it's done in a way that is more of a moral victory than a literal one. They don't take over Broadway, but Ginger does win over Don's heart, and Don gets Ginger to forgive him his part.
It was during Jasper's pain that I decided that this was the film for me. I think the whiplash works, but I'm just ever so slightly put off by it at the same time, and the ending wrap up feels a bit thin, though I do buy it overall.
It really is kind of amazing to see Capra forming so distinctly and executing so well so early. He feels like he's in complete command of the physical production from the subtle and effective direction of actors to the clear use of visual language (even a couple of jokes through intertitles), and his scripts are creeping up in quality at the same time. I shudder to think of how sound is going to send everything backwards, and it's just right around the corner.