''The Barker'' is a 1928
part-talkie
A part-talkie is a partly, and most often primarily, silent film which includes one or more synchronous sound sequences with audible dialog or singing. During the silent portions, lines of dialog are presented as "titles"—printed text briefly ...
pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...
romantic drama film
Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typica ...
produced and released by
First National Pictures
First National Pictures was an American motion picture production and distribution company. It was founded in 1917 as First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Inc., an association of independent theatre owners in the United States, and became the count ...
, a subsidiary of
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, acquired in September 1928. The film was directed by
George Fitzmaurice
George Fitzmaurice (13 February 1885 – 13 June 1940) was a French-born film director and producer.
Career
Fitzmaurice's career first started as a set designer on stage. Beginning in 1914, and continuing until his death in 1940, he directed ...
and stars
Milton Sills
Milton George Gustavus Sills (January 12, 1882 – September 15, 1930) was an American stage and film actor of the early twentieth century.
Biography
Sills was born in Chicago, Illinois, into a wealthy family. He was the son of William Henr ...
,
Dorothy Mackaill
Dorothy Mackaill (March 4, 1903 – August 12, 1990) was a British-American actress, most active during the silent-film era and into the pre-Code era of the early 1930s.
Early life
Born in Sculcoates, Kingston upon Hull in 1903 (although she l ...
,
Betty Compson
Betty Compson (born Eleanor Luicime Compson; March 19, 1897 – April 18, 1974) was an American actress and film producer who got her start during Hollywood's silent era. She is best known for her performances in ''The Docks of New York'' and ...
, and
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
The film is based on the Broadway play of the same name which opened at the
Biltmore Theatre January 18, 1927 and ran until July 1927 for 221 performances. In the stage production
was "Nifty" and a still relatively unknown
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures ...
was "Lou", played in the film by Dorothy Mackaill.
The film was adapted by
Benjamin Glazer
Benjamin Glazer (May 7, 1887 – March 18, 1956) was a screenwriter, producer, foley artist, and director of American films from the 1920s through the 1950s. He made the first translation of Ferenc Molnár's play ''Liliom'' into English in 1921 ...
,
Joseph Jackson and
Herman J. Mankiewicz from the play by
Kenyon Nicholson
Kenyon Nicholson (May 21, 1894 – December 19, 1986) was an American playwright and screenwriter.
Early life
John Kenyon Nicholson was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, on May 21, 1894, the oldest son of Thomas B. and Anne (Kenyon) Nichols ...
. ''The Barker'' is a
part-talkie
A part-talkie is a partly, and most often primarily, silent film which includes one or more synchronous sound sequences with audible dialog or singing. During the silent portions, lines of dialog are presented as "titles"—printed text briefly ...
with talking sequences and sequences with synchronized musical scoring and sound effects.
[''The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1921-30'' by The American Film Institute, (1971)]
Plot
The film tells the story of a woman (Dorothy Mackaill) who comes between a man (Milton Sills) and his estranged son (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Sills is a carnival
barker who is in love with a dancing girl and is ambitious to have his son, Fairbanks, become a lawyer. Fairbanks has other ideas and during his vacation he hops a freight, joins the carnival, and weds a dancing girl (Mackaill). Eventually, Fairbanks fulfills the ambition his father had for him.
Cast
*
Betty Compson
Betty Compson (born Eleanor Luicime Compson; March 19, 1897 – April 18, 1974) was an American actress and film producer who got her start during Hollywood's silent era. She is best known for her performances in ''The Docks of New York'' and ...
as Carrie
*
Milton Sills
Milton George Gustavus Sills (January 12, 1882 – September 15, 1930) was an American stage and film actor of the early twentieth century.
Biography
Sills was born in Chicago, Illinois, into a wealthy family. He was the son of William Henr ...
as Nifty Miller
*
Dorothy Mackaill
Dorothy Mackaill (March 4, 1903 – August 12, 1990) was a British-American actress, most active during the silent-film era and into the pre-Code era of the early 1930s.
Early life
Born in Sculcoates, Kingston upon Hull in 1903 (although she l ...
as Lou
*
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Chris Miller
*
Sylvia Ashton
Sylvia Ashton (January 26, 1880 – November 18, 1940) was an American film actress of the silent film era.
Ashton was born in Denver, Colorado. She bore a heavyset resemblance to Jane Darwell and like Darwell was playing mother and grand ...
as Ma Benson
*
George Cooper as Hap Spissel
*S. S. Simon as Col. Gowdy
*
Tom Dugan as Stuttering Spieker
Uncredited:
*
Bobby Dunn
Robert P. Dunn (August 28, 1890 – March 24, 1937) was a comic actor who was one of the original Keystone Kops in '' Hoffmeyer's Legacy''.
Early years
Dunn was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Richard P. and Melissa Dunn, and attended S ...
as Hamburger concessionaire
*
Pat Harmon
Plummer Hull Harman (February 3, 1886 – November 26, 1958), known professionally as Pat Harmon, was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1920 and 1947.
In 1935, Harmon was the victim of a violent assault whic ...
as Heckler
*Bynunsky Hyman as Fire Eater
*
Gladden James
Gladden James (February 26, 1888 – August 28, 1948) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1911 and 1946. He was born in Zanesville, Ohio and died in Hollywood, California, from leukemia.
Family
In 1914 he ...
as Member of Hawaiian Trio
*
Charles Sullivan as Man in audience
*
Pat West as Bartender
Awards and honors
Preservation status
The film survives intact with its talking sequences and has been preserved by the
UCLA Film and Television Archive
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the archiv ...
and manufactured-on-demand DVD by the
Warner Archive Collection
The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...
.
Remakes
''The Barker'' was remade as ''
Hoop-La
''Hoop-La'' is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film directed by Frank Lloyd, and starring Clara Bow (in her final film role), Preston Foster, Richard Cromwell and Minna Gombell also in the cast. The film is based on the play ''The Barker'' by Ke ...
'' (1933) with
Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow (; July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the ...
and as ''
Diamond Horseshoe
''Diamond Horseshoe'' (also billed as ''Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe'') is a 1945 Technicolor musical film starring Betty Grable and Dick Haymes, directed by George Seaton, and released by 20th Century Fox. It was filmed in Billy Rose's Diam ...
'' (1945) with
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth Grable (December 18, 1916 – July 2, 1973) was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer.
Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million; for 10 consecutive years (1942–1951) she reign ...
. Japanese director
Yasujirō Ozu
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in t ...
remade this film (without crediting the original) as ''
A Story of Floating Weeds
is a 1934 silent film directed by Yasujirō Ozu which he later remade as ''Floating Weeds'' in 1959 in color. It won the Kinema Junpo Award for best film.
Plot
The film starts with a travelling kabuki troupe arriving by train at a provincial se ...
'' (1934) and again as ''
Floating Weeds
is a 1959 Japanese drama directed by Yasujirō Ozu, starring Nakamura Ganjirō II and Machiko Kyō. It is a remake of Ozu's own black-and-white silent film '' A Story of Floating Weeds'' (1934) and considered one of the greatest films ever made. ...
'' (1959).
See also
*
List of early Warner Bros. talking features
This is a list of early pre-recorded sound and/or talking movies produced, co-produced, and/or distributed by Warner Bros. and its subsidiary First National (FN) for the years 1927–1931.
Silent film
''silent film with Vitaphone track unless ...
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, The
1928 films
1928 romantic drama films
American black-and-white films
American films based on plays
American romantic drama films
American silent feature films
Early sound films
Films directed by George Fitzmaurice
First National Pictures films
Films scored by Louis Silvers
Films with screenplays by Herman J. Mankiewicz
Transitional sound films
1920s English-language films
1920s American films
Silent romantic drama films
Silent American drama films