Fri 24 Jul 2009
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: SKINNER’S DRESS SUIT (1926).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews , Silent films[4] Comments
SKINNER’S DRESS SUIT. Universal, 1926; Reginald Denny, Laura La Plante, Ben Hendricks, Jr., E. J. Ratcliffe, Arthur Lake, Hedda Hopper. Director: William A. Seiter. Shown at Cinevent 41, Columbus OH, May 2009.
Skinner and Honey (Denny and La Plante) are a young married couple, with Skinner’s office job bringing in a salary that’s not up to Honey’s expectations of her husband’s worth. Egged on by his ambitious wife, Skinner finally works himself up to asking his boss for a raise.
Although the request is refused, Skinner finds himself incapable of confessing the failure to his wife, who immediately assumes he has the raise and starts spending down their savings on the expectation of the increased income.
Denny and La Plante gave such charming performances that it was difficult for me to find his wimpiness and her pushy nature distasteful. As their financial difficulties mount, an invitation to a fancy party proves to be their salvation, a plot turn fueled by their skill at the Charleston that leads to a dancing sequence that lifts this expertly directed and played comedy to new levels of effervescence.
July 25th, 2009 at 4:55 am
I’ve wanted to see this film for years!
Reginald Denny is a delightful comedian. His performance as as Algy in the Bulldog Drummond films is far and away their best feature IMHO.
Dave Kehr (of the New York Times) has been promoting Seiter as a major director of comedy. Have so far seen only a little of his work.
July 25th, 2009 at 4:59 am
PS Silent films were full of dancing. Quite a few were actually “musicals”, even if no one sang in them!
Rudoplh Valentino tango-ed his way to stardom in THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE.
Mae Murray and John Gilbert triumphed with the waltz in THE MERRY WIDOW.
And let us not forget THE OYSTER PRINCESS and the “epidemic of foxtrotting” that breaks out…
July 25th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Mike
SKINNER’S DRESS SUIT is available on DVD. It was released earlier this year by Grapevine Video.
See http://www.grapevinevideo.com/skinners_dress_suit.htm
Not badly priced at $14.95, but I assume that you can also get it through your local library or Netflix etc.
I see that the DVD has a full orchestra music score, but in 1926, I don’t imagine it did in most theaters where it played!
— Steve
July 25th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Many major silent films had two scores. A fully orchestrated one for the major cities with big movie palaces and another for piano or organ for smaller venues. Even before voices were recorded a few films were released with musical score and some sound effects recorded on film or with synchronized recordings.
Joan Crawford made her film debut in the silents often as a dancing flapper and “It” girl Clara Bow often participated in wild dance scenes in her films. Even a few operettas were made into films like the about mentioned Merry Widow. Still, it’s not surprising that “all singing, all dancing, all talking” was such an attraction for the early talkies musicals.