Famous for being MGM's first foray into talkies (goat-glanded the last two reels) and for being lost. While the complete film is, so far, lost, a 9.5mm 40-minute cut-down exists and I've been privileged to see it. As for the Vitaphone soundtrack, I believe a few bits survive.
The plot has William Haines as a snappy safe cracker. The cut-down that survives (a French print) opens with Haines setting up a safe cracking with his gang (Karl Dane, Tully Marshall) in an American Express sort of office. Haines then rushes to the local precinct to report a stolen valise just as the bomb he set up goes off and his team rushes in to clean out the safe, He's got a cop (looks like Fred Kelsey) as a witness. Pretty slick.
Next we jump to a new town where Haines has plans for the local bank but he meets and falls for Leila Hyams, who happens to be the daughter of the bank president. As in many films of the era, she also has a sister and brother 20 years her junior. Eventually he's offered a job in the bank (how sweet) but a police inspector (Lionel Barrymore) is on his trail. One day, while they are playing cat and mouse......
The little girl gets locked in the bank safe and Hyams is having a hissy and Haines is trying to figure out what to do: let the kid suffocate or crack the safe and give away his real identity. Oh, what will he do?
Based on a story by O. Henry and directed by Jack Conway. What's left is a skeleton, but we can only hope it will some day be fleshed out. The film was among MGM's biggest hits of 1928.
Filmed in 1915 with Robert Warwick and again in 1920 with Bert Lytell.
The plot has William Haines as a snappy safe cracker. The cut-down that survives (a French print) opens with Haines setting up a safe cracking with his gang (Karl Dane, Tully Marshall) in an American Express sort of office. Haines then rushes to the local precinct to report a stolen valise just as the bomb he set up goes off and his team rushes in to clean out the safe, He's got a cop (looks like Fred Kelsey) as a witness. Pretty slick.
Next we jump to a new town where Haines has plans for the local bank but he meets and falls for Leila Hyams, who happens to be the daughter of the bank president. As in many films of the era, she also has a sister and brother 20 years her junior. Eventually he's offered a job in the bank (how sweet) but a police inspector (Lionel Barrymore) is on his trail. One day, while they are playing cat and mouse......
The little girl gets locked in the bank safe and Hyams is having a hissy and Haines is trying to figure out what to do: let the kid suffocate or crack the safe and give away his real identity. Oh, what will he do?
Based on a story by O. Henry and directed by Jack Conway. What's left is a skeleton, but we can only hope it will some day be fleshed out. The film was among MGM's biggest hits of 1928.
Filmed in 1915 with Robert Warwick and again in 1920 with Bert Lytell.