Sally Of The Sawdust

Having been abandoned by her mother as a child, Sally Foster is raised by sideshow conman Professor Eustance McGargle and becomes his willing assistant. When their traveling show arrives in the leafy town of Green Meadows, McGargle learns that Sally's grandparents live nearby and hopes they will take her in. Unfortunately, Sally is caught by the police and held responsible for her guardian's con artist tricks. Now McGargle must prove Sally's innocence and reunite her with her grandparents, even if it costs him his freedom and the girl he has come to love like a daughter…

Though his popularity on the Broadway stage went back nearly to the dawn of the 20th Century, W.C. Fields was not an immediate transplant to the silver screen. Though he starred in two short comedies, Pool Sharks (1915) and His Lordship's Dilemma (1915; now considered lost) this did not lead to a series comparable to Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, or Harry Langdon. Things changed when legendary director D.W. Griffith chose to bring Poppy, a hit for Fields on Broadway that ran from 1923 to 1924, to the big screen. However, Griffith was more interested in Poppy (which he tellingly retitled Sally of the Sawdust) as a vehicle for Carol Dempster, his latest ingénue. Though Dempster had made The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919), Dream Street (1921) and One Exciting Night (1922) with the filmmaker, she had yet to catch on with audiences like other female Griffith protégés such as Mae Marsh, Bessie Love, and the Gish sisters had. Thus, W.C. ended up playing second banana in what was meant to be his breakthrough film, much to Fields' displeasure. Despite this, the comedian made enough of an impression that Paramount offered him a contract to star in his own series of feature-length comedies, beginning with It's the Old Army Game (1926) alongside Louise Brooks. As for Dempster, her career ended after she turned down Griffith's proposal of marriage (most likely not a coincidence.) Though called "one of the lesser Griffiths" by William K. Everson in his book American Silent Film, Sally of the Sawdust is still, in the legendary film historian's words, "a good deal of enjoyable fun." (1925)

Upplagd i sortimentet: 29 december, 2024