''Tip Toes'' is a 1927 British

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

comedy-drama, directed by

Herbert Wilcox Herbert Sydney Wilcox Order of the British Empire, CBE (19 April 1890 – 15 May 1977) was a British film producer and film director, director. He was one of the most successful British filmmakers from the 1920s to the 1950s. He is best know ...

and starring

Dorothy Gish Dorothy Elizabeth Gish (March 11, 1898June 4, 1968) was an American actress of the screen and stage, as well as a director and writer. Dorothy and her older sister Lillian Gish were major movie stars of the silent era. Dorothy also had great s ...

and

Will Rogers William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ...

. The film is a loose adaptation of the stage musical ''

Tip-Toes ''Tip-Toes'' is a musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. It centers on a vaudeville act composed of Tip-Toes, her brother and her uncle, who try to pass her off as an aristocrat t ...

'', with the action transferred from Florida to London.

Plot

Tip Toes (Dorothy Gish) and her two partners Uncle Hen (Rogers) and Al (Nelson Keys) have a struggling music-hall act. When they go for auditions, theatre managers are keen on Tip Toes as a solo, but do not want the men. Tip Toes turns down offers to go it alone out of loyalty to her fellows. In deep financial trouble, they decide as a last throw of the dice to book into a suite at a high-class hotel and put the story about that Tip Toes is a sophisticated heiress, while she tries to snag a wealthy gentleman. Tip Toes attracts the interest of a young peer, but the plans of the trio are constantly on the point of being undermined as Hen and Al get into a series of scrapes.

Cast

as Tip Toes Kaye *

as Uncle Hen Kaye *

Nelson Keys Nelson Keys (7 April 1886 in London, England – 26 April 1939 in London) was a British stage and film actor, a star in musical comedy and stage revue, including the 1924 ''Ziegfeld Follies''. He was the father of film producer Anthony Nelson Ke ...

as Al Kaye *

Miles Mander Miles Mander (born Lionel Henry Mander; 14 May 1888 – 8 February 1946), was an English character actor of the early Hollywood cinema, also a film director and producer, and a playwright and novelist. He was sometimes credited as Luther Mile ...

as Rollo Stevens *

Dennis Hoey Dennis Hoey (born Samuel David Hyams, 30 March 1893 – 25 July 1960) was a British film and stage actor, best known for playing Inspector Lestrade in six films of Universal's Sherlock Holmes series. Early life Hoey was born Samuel David ...

as Hotelier * John Manners as Lord William Montgomery

Production

A writer was paid £2,000 to do a script but Wilcox threw it out. Paramount contributed only £20,000 of the production cost.

Reception

''Tip Toes'' was the last in a four-picture deal between Wilcox and Paramount to star Gish in British films. The earlier films ('' Nell Gwyn'', ''

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

'' and ''

Madame Pompadour Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (, ; 29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French court. She was the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, and rema ...

'') had all been relatively favourably received by contemporary critics; however ''Tip Toes'' appears to have attracted almost universally negative responses. ''The Bioscope'' dismissed it as "feeble", while ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' accused the film of being "not only a libel on Americans, but on American vaudeville and its artists". The film lost money.

Preservation status

No print of ''Tip Toes'' is known to survive, and the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

include it on their '" 75 Most Wanted" list of missing British feature films. It is considered of great potential interest to silent cinema historians, not only as a prestige production involving star names, but to assess whether it really was a disastrous misfire justifying its terrible reception, or whether a modern perspective would view the film more kindly.

References

External links

*
BFI 75 Most Wanted entry
with extensive notes {{Herbert Wilcox 1927 films British silent feature films British comedy-drama films British black-and-white films Films directed by Herbert Wilcox Lost British films 1927 comedy-drama films Lost comedy-drama films 1927 lost films 1920s British films Silent comedy-drama films