It's the Old Army Game (1926)

That was an excellent one.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Blistering performances.

It's the Old Army Game (1926) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Entertaining comedy has W.C. Fields playing Elmer Prettywillie, a druggist who constantly finds himself unhappy due to other people. One day he catches a break, which could lead to him getting rich but it might turn out to be a scam.IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME certainly isn't what you'd call "classic Fields" but there's no doubt that fans of his will enjoy seeing him here. This is especially true since IT'S A GIFT is basically a sound version of this. The biggest problem with the movie is that the fact that the screenplay comes across like four or five short films instead of a real feature.I say that because we basically got different scenarios that Fields gets himself into. The first one is him trying to get some sleep yet a woman will stop at nothing for him to open his store. There's another subplot dealing with a very annoying kid that lives with him and who is constantly trying to get his way. You've got another subplot where Fields gets involved with someone who might be a bit shady.

While I've always considered by self a movie fan, I've never really been big on silent films. My favorite silents tend to be horror related - movies like The Unknown with Lon Chaney and M with Peter Lorre. But having recently "discovered" Louise Brooks, I'm determined to watch more of her films. So, my Louise Brooks journey starts with It's the Old Army Game. While it's definitely a W.C. Fields vehicle, Louise Brooks really shines in the moments she's on screen.Most of It's the Old Army Game is made up of various gags or comedic bits featuring Fields. I've never been much of a Fields' fan and this movie doesn't change that much. He's hit or miss here. The two best gags are the baby and the boy in the shop. They would have been even better had the "children" involved not been so creepy looking - especially the "baby". But scenes like the picnic didn't really work with me. It overstays its welcome. I did enjoy the subplot featuring the con man's land deal in New York. More of this would have been good. In the end, this plot thread felt horribly rushed.But as I said at the start, I watched It's the Old Army Game mostly for Louise Brooks. And she did not disappoint. She is the center of attention anytime she's on screen. She has that something special about her. Two scenes that show what I mean about Brooks are the ice cream soda scene at the beginning and the scene where Fields is trying to get something out of a lady's eye. In the first, just watching her sitting on that stool in the middle of the firemen is such an engaging visual. Those eyes - she's gorgeous. In the second scene, Brooks isn't really even in it - she's watching the events from above. But her smile is mesmerizing and infectious. You could feel her joy in what she's watching. I've got to see more of her stuff.

Once thought lost, this W.C. Fields silent comedy was later remade (more or less) as It's a Gift. Here he's a pharmacist instead of a grocer (I think the short The Pharmacist also re-uses elements from this one), and some of the gags are different. There's a subplot about Fields investing in a real estate scam. The guy who's running it (William Gaxton) has a romantic subplot with Louise Brooks, who works as Fields' counter girl. Alas, Fields without his voice is barely half as funny. His attitude remains identical, but his acerbic line readings are gone. It also doesn't help that the version presented on Youtube is run at a slow speed, making the film much longer than it should be. I wouldn't recommend it.

In his 1967 book "The Art of W.C. Fields," film historian William K. Everson bemoaned the apparent loss of much of Fields' early movie work. In a chapter devoted to eight silent films that Fields made for Paramount from 1926 to 1928, Everson wrote: "Of those eight features, not one is known to have survived." Stills from most of those films decorate Everson's book; they stare out from the pages as ghostly reminders of films believed gone for good.That was then; since Everson's book was published, copies of three of those missing features have turned up: "So's Your Old Man," "Running Wild" - and "It's the Old Army Game." (The one film in the group of eight that film historians would really like to get their hands on is "That Royle Girl," which was the second feature Fields did with D.W. Griffith, the first being "Sally of the Sawdust.")I got to see "Army Game" at the AFI Silver in Silver Spring, Maryland. As funny as the film was - and it was very funny - the experience of seeing it on the big screen was also surprisingly poignant, given its formerly lost status. Relying on contemporary reviews, Everson speculated that Fields' silent Paramount features, which were all produced by the company's New York studio, were done on the cheap and probably suffered from a "cramped 'East Coast look.'" As it turns out, "Army Game" is a very handsomely mounted production, and includes location filming in Florida and New York City (it was fairly amazing to see scenes of midtown Manhattan in 1926 and notice how much of it - the buildings, mainly - has barely changed in nearly eight decades). "Army Game" is so well produced, it was sad to think that, like Clementine, it was once thought "lost and gone forever."Partly remade as "The Pharmacist" in 1933 and "It's a Gift" in 1934, "Army Game" stars Fields as Elmer Prettywillie, a small town druggist who suffers various indignities at the hands of his relatives (no wife here, but there is an obnoxious sister and her nephew), customers and neighbors. Can a silent Fields be as funny as the talking one we're all familiar with? This film says definitely. Of course, we all know what Fields sounded like, so this can simply be a case of filling in his voice with our imaginations. But our imaginations don't stop there. In one scene, when Fields is trying to sleep on a porch swing and a baby girl (who, I'm convinced, was played by an adult female midget) stands nearby and bawls, I could hear her crying rattling in my brain.But perhaps we do miss Fields' voice, after all. One minor complaint I have about "Army Game" is that Fields' character seems to keep changing on us. In one scene, he's a milquetoast who can't bring himself to charge an overbearing woman for the two cents' worth of postage she's purchased; in another, he comes perilously close to maliciously dropping the above-mentioned baby off a balcony; in another, he's a sharpie who out-hustles a would-be hustler; in another, he's a buffoon who doesn't know the meaning of a "no trespassing" sign and calls a grandfather clock a "watch." I'm not saying a film character can't show different sides or can never surprise us with some hidden trait or ability, but Elmer Prettywillie seems to be suffering from multiple personality disorder. Had Fields been able to use his voice in this film, he might have brought all these seemingly disparate threads together, as he probably did in "It's a Gift" (which I don't remember well, it's been about 30 years since I've seen it - yipe!). "Army Game" also has an extraneous romantic subplot involving drugstore employee Louise Brooks and handsome con artist William Gaxton that threatens to split off into its own film.This was the first time I'd seen Louise Brooks in a movie, and all I can say at first blush is: Wow. As Prettywillie's young assistant, Brooks positively radiates from the screen without even trying. OK, she does try in one scene: clad in a swimsuit, leaning against a tree, head tilted back, eyes closed and trying to look heartbroken, Brooks is so obviously posing (or being posed) for the camera, it's hard not to snicker. But she does it *so* well. (The director was Edward Sutherland, who married Brooks around the time this film was made; their marriage lasted all of about two years.)In his Fields book, Everson said "Army Game" was "not remembered with any great enthusiasm" by Brooks. In her own book, "Lulu in Hollywood," Brooks, recalling her work with Gaxton, says with acerbic candor that she knew then that "our parts as the 'love interest' in a Fields comedy meant nothing." Did Brooks ever get to see "Army Game"? It's doubtful. In her 1982 book, published three years before her death, Brooks said she hadn't seen it. It's a shame - not only did she miss out on a truly funny W.C. Fields vehicle, she also missed out on seeing a delightful young actress with a pageboy-style haircut who lit up the screen every time she appeared. (Dear AFI: Could you schedule a screening of "Pandora's Box" real soon, please?)A couple of footnotes: AFI's presentation of "Army Game" featured excellent live organ accompaniment by Ray Brubacher. Also, the film, when I saw it, ran about 90 minutes, considerably longer than the running time listed by IMDb - I suspect AFI ran the film as close to "natural speed" as possible, which was a definite plus in terms of presentation.