''The Self Starter'' is a 1926 American
silent comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
directed by
Harry Joe Brown
Harry Joe Brown (September 22, 1890 – April 28, 1972) was an American film producer, and earlier a theatre and film director.
Biography
Harry Joe Brown was born in 1890 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a producer, he had a partnership with ...
and starring
Reed Howes
Reed or Reeds may refer to:
Science, technology, biology, and medicine
* Reed bird (disambiguation)
* Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times
* Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales
* R ...
,
Mildred Harris
Mildred Harris (April 18, 1901 – July 20, 1944) was an American stage, film, and vaudeville actress during the early part of the 20th century. Harris began her career in the film industry as a child actress when she was 10 years old. She was a ...
and
Sheldon Lewis
Sheldon Lewis (April 20, 1868 – May 7, 1958) was an American actor of the silent era best known for his antagonistic roles. He appeared in more than 90 films between 1914 and 1936.
Lewis was married to actress Virginia Pearson, and they were ...
.
[Munden p.695] It was distributed by the
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
Rayart Pictures
Rayart Pictures was one of the early film production and distribution companies operating independently of the major Hollywood studios in the United States during the later silent film era from the mid-to-late 1920s and into the early "talkies" e ...
.
Synopsis
Returning from service in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
Jerry Neale invents a new self starting
ignition system
An ignition system generates a spark or heats an electrode to a high temperature to ignite a fuel-air mixture in spark ignition internal combustion engines, oil-fired and gas-fired boilers, rocket engines, etc. The widest application for spark ig ...
that can power
tanks
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine ...
and
tractors
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...
. He falls in love with young actress Ruth Atkin, but faces a rival in Dan Hicks who also tries to steal his invention.
Cast
*
Reed Howes
Reed or Reeds may refer to:
Science, technology, biology, and medicine
* Reed bird (disambiguation)
* Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times
* Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales
* R ...
as Jerry Neale
*
Mildred Harris
Mildred Harris (April 18, 1901 – July 20, 1944) was an American stage, film, and vaudeville actress during the early part of the 20th century. Harris began her career in the film industry as a child actress when she was 10 years old. She was a ...
as Ruth Atkin
*
Sheldon Lewis
Sheldon Lewis (April 20, 1868 – May 7, 1958) was an American actor of the silent era best known for his antagonistic roles. He appeared in more than 90 films between 1914 and 1936.
Lewis was married to actress Virginia Pearson, and they were ...
as Buddy
*
John Sinclair as Soly
*
Harry Tenbrook
Harry Tenbrook (born Henry Olaf Hansen, October 9, 1887 – September 4, 1960) was an American film actor.
Henry Olaf Hansen was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. His family migrated to the United States in 1892. Under the stage nam ...
as Dan Hicks
*
Lionel Belmore
Lionel Belmore (12 May 1867 – 30 January 1953) was an English character actor and director on stage for more than a quarter of a century.
Life and career
Onstage, Belmore appeared with Wilson Barrett, Sir Henry Irving, William Faversham, Lil ...
as Crane
References
Bibliography
* Connelly, Robert B. ''The Silents: Silent Feature Films, 1910-36, Volume 40, Issue 2''. December Press, 1998.
* Munden, Kenneth White. ''The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 1''. University of California Press, 1997.
External links
*
1926 films
1926 comedy films
1920s English-language films
American silent feature films
Silent American comedy films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Harry Joe Brown
Rayart Pictures films
1920s American films
{{1920s-US-film-stub