Will Rogers Movies
As a boy, Rogers became an expert rider and rope-twirler; he first performed in a Johannesburg Wild West Show during the Boer War. In the U.S., he worked in fairs and vaudeville, gradually developing an act that included humor. He began appearing in musical comedy in 1912; five years later, he starred with the Ziegfeld Follies. Beginning in 1918, Rogers appeared in many feature and short films, but his appeal in the silent medium was limited; when he tried to produce and direct his own films, he lost a good deal of his own money. However, once the sound era began, he quickly became one of the nation's most popular performers -- his folksy wit and down-home philosophy making him an ambassador of rural America and spokesman for the common folk. Rogers also worked on radio and wrote newspaper columns. He turned down an offer to run for Governor of Oklahoma, but served as Mayor of Beverly Hills and campaigned actively (via his very influential columns) for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. He died in an airplane crash with aviator Wiley Post in 1935. He was portrayed in three films by his look-alike son, Will Rogers Jr. -- one was the biopic The Will Rogers Story (1952). He was also the central subject of the Broadway musical The Will Rogers Follies, in which he was portrayed by Keith Carradine and Mac Davis. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1939
The Movies March On was Number 12, volume 9 of Louis de Rochemont's March of Time series. Narrated by the stentorian Westbrook Van Vorhees, this fascinating documentary manages to squeeze 40 years of filmmaking into a mere two reels. Beginning with the once scandalous The Kiss (1898), the film jumps ahead to one of the first "story" films, Edison's The Great Train Robbery (1903, directed by Edwin S. Porter). Next is offered a cross-section of the great D. W. Griffith's Biograph films followed by snippets of such past luminaries as Mary Pickford, William S. Hart, Charlie Chaplin, Theda Bara, Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. In 1927, The Jazz Singer ushers in the talkie era, which is represented by snippets from films as diverse as All Quiet on the Western Front and the Mickey Mouse vehicle Steamboat Willie. After a round-up of recent cinematic achievements, Van Vorhees signs off with his customary "Time?.MARCHES ON!" Though undeniably superficial, The Movies March On at least never adopts a condescending tone when reviewing the silent era, which sets it apart from most summaries of its kind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, (more)
- 1935
Two of America's most distinguished humorists, Oklahoma's Will Rogers and Kentucky's Irvin S. Cobb, costar in Steamboat Round the Bend. Cobb isn't much of an actor, so it is Rogers who carries the comic weight of this fast-paced slice of Americana. Will uncharacteristically sticks to the script for most of the proceedings as the proprietor of a combination travelling waxworks and medicine show. The plot resolution hinges on a climactic steamboat race, in which Rogers' paddlewheeler is fed bit by bit into its own furnace when the fuel supply runs out. Steamboat Round the Bend was released posthumously after Rogers' sudden death, at which point Fox Studios tried unsuccessfully to create a "new" Will Rogers--in the form of his old friend and costar Irvin S. Cobb. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Anne Shirley, (more)
- 1935
George Ade's turn-of-the-century stage success The County Chairman was retailored as a Will Rogers vehicle in 1935. Set in 1904, the film casts Rogers as Jim Hackler, political-party chairman of Tomahawk County, Wyoming. At rise, Hackler is running for county prosecutor against his old political and romantic rival, crooked Elias Rigby (Berton Churchill). Complications arise when Jim's protégé Ben Harvey (Kent Taylor) falls in love with Rigby's daughter Lucy (Evelyn Venable). Presented with the opportunity to smear Rigby in public by digging up an old scandal, Jim refuses to stoop to his opponent's level -- and miracle of miracles, he wins the election anyway! The film's best moments occur when Will Rogers departs from the script to offer extemporaneous comments on a wide variety of subjects: he even manages to poke gentle fun at Henry Ford, who was hardly a "major player" in 1904! The supporting cast ranges from such Rogers "regulars" as Charles Middleton and Stepin Fetchit (at his most incomprehensible!) to such relative newcomers as 15-year-old Mickey Rooney. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Evelyn Venable, (more)
- 1935
Doubting Thomas is the 1935 film version of George Kelly's satirical comedy The Torch Bearers, tailored for the talents of Will Rogers. Billie Burke, Will's wife, becomes so involved in a local amateur theatre group that she has no time for her husband. In retaliation, Will pretends to "go Hollywood," proving that he is stage-struck by doing an extended imitation of Bing Crosby. The film's highlight is the "opening night" scene, a cornucopia of missed cues, inappropriate costumes and collapsing scenery. An earlier, silent version of The Torch Bearers has unfortunately been lost to the ages. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Billie Burke, (more)
- 1935
Oklahoma's own Will Rogers stars in In Old Kentucky. The storyline is in the grand tradition of most films about the Bluegrass State: There's a long-standing family feud, a pair of star-crossed lovers, and a crucial horse race. Rogers cuts through the banality with his seemingly off-the-cuff observations about Kentucky life in particular and the World in general. The best moment of In Old Kentucky has Rogers attempting to escape from jail by putting on blackface makeup and disguising himself as Bill "Bojangles" Robinson--whereupon he's forced to tap-dance to prove his identity. 1935's In Old Kentucky was the third film version of Charles T. Dazey's 1895 stage play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Dorothy Wilson, (more)
- 1935
A best-selling nonfictional book of the 1920s provided the title for this Will Rogers vehicle. Rogers plays a small town newspaper editor who prints all the news that fits his own homespun view of the world. Against the wishes of the town higher-ups, Rogers tries to clear the name of Richard Cromwell, a young man accused of a long-ago bank robbery. Along the way, the genial editor smooths the path of romance between Cromwell and sweet Rochelle Hudson. Life Begins at 40 contains some great bits of dialogue, notably Rogers' comment after unloading a box of canned goods that the American emblem should be changed from an eagle to a can opener. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Rochelle Hudson, (more)
- 1934
In this domestic comedy, a small town druggist is married to a woman with social aspirations. To achieve her goal, she cons him into selling his store to a chain. She then puts on all sorts of phony airs and proceeds to make a pompous fool of herself. Meanwhile he amuses himself with hobbies. The two go on a New Orleans vacation. There a gigolo begins being overly attentive to his wife, who is still putting on the style. This makes her husband so jealous that he dons a Tarzan suit and winds up in jail. Later his wife settles down, he gets his store back, and harmony resumes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Peggy Wood, (more)
- 1934
Previously filmed in 1915, David Harum is the story of an upstate New York rancher devoted to trotting races. Will Rogers makes no attempt to alter his Oklahoma accent as David Harum, but audiences in the 1930s came to see Rogers and not the character. After several examples of his horse-trading savvy, David settles down to the business at hand: playing Cupid for young Evelyn Venable and Kent Taylor. The film ends with the anticipated championship trotting race, with Harum's horse being galvanized into action by the song "Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-yay".David Harum has a wonderful improvisational feel about it, especially in the scenes between Rogers and African-American comedian Step'n Fetchit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Louise Dresser, (more)
- 1934
Will Rogers stars as Judge William "Billy" Priest, the common-sense Kentucky jurist created by humorist Irvin S. Cobb. The Judge's easygoing manner bothers many of the self-righteous good citizens of his small 19th-century hometown, imperiling his chances for re-election. The anecdotal plot boils down to a single storyline involving orphaned Anita Louise, reclusive David Landau (secretly Louise's father), and young attorney Tom Brown.The testimony that saves Landau from a murder charge is delivered by Civil War veteran H.B. Walthall, whose stirring loyalty to the Confederacy inspires everyone in town to organize an impromptu parade! Some of the best scenes are highlighted by Will Rogers' affectionate rapport with stereotyped black-actors Stepin Fetchit and Hattie McDaniel, though these scenes are frequently removed from TV showings of Judge Priest due to their undeniably racist overtones. If you haven't guessed by the first frame of the film that John Ford was the director, you'll recognize Ford's personal stamp the moment Will Rogers kneels by his wife's grave and carries on a warm conversation with his long-departed bride. Ford would remake (and improve upon) Judge Priest in 1953 as The Sun Shines Bright, with Charles Winninger as the judge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Tom Brown, (more)
- 1933
Mr. Skitch was filmed under such working titles as See America First and Green Dice, which was also the name of the Anne Cameron short story on which it was based. Will Rogers plays Mr. Skitch, who after losing all his money in the stock market, packs his wife (ZaSu Pitts) and daughter Emily (Rochelle Hudson) into the family car and heads off to California, hoping to start life anew. En route to the Golden State, the Skitch family visits a number of familiar landmarks, all courtesy of a background process screen. At Grand Canyon, they meet handsome West Point cadet Harvey Denby (Charles Starrett), who of course is immediately smitten by Emily. Once in Hollywood, Mr. Skitch recoups his fortune when he becomes the manager of "celebrity impressionist" Flo (Florence Desmond, whose imitation of co-star ZaSu Pitts is a riot!) Mr. Skitch was the first of two successful collaborations between star Will Rogers and director James Cruze; the second was David Harum (1934). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, ZaSu Pitts, (more)
- 1933
The 1933 State Fair was the first of three film versions of the Phillip Stong bestseller. Some consider it the best of the three because of its stricter adherence to the source material and the presence of star Will Rogers. Rogers plays Abel Frake, patriarch of a family whose individual members are affected by the upcoming Iowa State Fair in various fascinating ways. Abel hopes to enter his prize hog Blue Boy and win the blue ribbon. His wife Melissa (Louise Dresser) wants to enter her mincemeat in a food competition, his son Wayne (Norman Foster) wants to get even with a carnival sharpster who'd outsmarted him during the last state fair, and daughter Margery (Janet Gaynor) just wants to get out of the house for a little fun. The parents win their prizes (though it looks for a while that Blue Boy will succumb to a serious illness) the children have brief romances (one happy, one cautionary), and everyone goes home a little wiser for the experience. Footnote: Fox studios offered to butcher Blue Boy and sell his meat to Will Rogers, but Rogers declined, noting that he wouldn't feel right eating his costar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Janet Gaynor, (more)
- 1933
Will Rogers is Dr. Bull, a small-town physician with precious little book learning. This doesn't stop him from ministering to the citizens, often substituting advice and witticisms for pills and sutures. There are those who resist Dr. Bull's everyday doses of common sense and humanity, especially the gossip mongers who read the worst into the doctor's frequent visits to a lonely widow (Vera Lewis). Bull triumphs over his adversaries when he stems a typhoid epidemic, proving that the disease was spread by pollution from the construction camp owned by the town's resident Scrooge (Berton Churchill). Directed by John Ford with his usual compassion towards sensible small-town types, Dr. Bull was adapted from The Last Adam, a novel by James Gould Cozzens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Vera Allen, (more)
- 1932
The second film version of Ben Ames Williams' magazine serial Jubilo, and the second to star Will Rogers, Too Busy to Work takes considerably more liberties with the source material than the original 1919 Jubilo. Once again, Rogers is cast as a lovable hobo named Jubilo (after the old spiritual of the same name), but this time there is a compelling reason for his vagabond existence. While Jubilo was off fighting in WW1, his wife ran off with another man, taking their baby daughter Rose with her. Upon his return to the States, Jubilo took to the road, hoping some day to find his daughter (the wayward wife having died just before War's end). Arriving in a small town, Jubilo learns that his now-grown daughter Rose (Marian Nixon) has been raised by a widely respected judge and his wife, and is blissfully unaware of her true identity. Assessing the situation, Jubilo decides to leave well enough alone, and not tell the girl that he's her real daddy. But before he can shamble out of Rose's life, Jubilo must first smooth the path of true love by clearing Rose's sweetheart Dan Hardy (Dick Powell) of a false criminal charge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Marian Nixon, (more)
- 1932
Very loosely based on Booth Tarkington's novel The Plutocrat, Business and Pleasure stars Will Rogers as Earl Tinker, a newly rich Oklahoma razor-blade manufacturer. On the pretext of taking a vacation with his family, Earl journeys to far-off Syria, there to purchase the secret formula for Damascus steel. During the ocean voyage to the middle east, Earl's daughter Olivia (Peggy Ross) falls in love with struggling playwright Lawrence Ogle (Joel McCrea), while a worldly adventuress named Madame Momora (Jetta Goudal) apparently sets her sights on the bashful Earl, much to the dismay of his wife (Dorothy Peterson). In truth, however, Madame Momora is an "industrial spy" in the employ of Tinker's main competitor, and it is her job to prevent Earl from completing his business mission. But our dumb-like-a-fox hero manages to turn the tables with the use of a clever disguise and a few other dexterous diversions. Filmed before the 1931 Will Rogers vehicle Ambassador Bill, Business and Pleasure was released afterward in early 1932, thereby giving audiences the pleasant surprise of seeing Boris Karloff, newly famous thanks to his performance as The Monster in Frankenstein, popping up unbilled as a desert sheik. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Jetta Goudal, (more)
- 1932
This sequel to the highly successful Will Rogers vehicles They Had to See Paris and So This is London details the further adventures of the nouveau riche Peters family of Claremore, Oklahoma. Oil millionaire Pike Peters (Will Rogers) remains his old "down to earth" self, but his family -- wife Idy (Irene Rich) and son Ross (Matty Kemp) -- insist upon taking on airs. Idy's improvidence reaches hitherto unscaled heights when she insists upon rebuilding the family's French chateau in their hometown of Claremore. Hoping to bring his family to its senses, Pike uses a recent bank failure as an excuse to pretend that he's gone broke. Idy and Ross realize the error of their ways, and things return to normal again -- for the time being, anyway. Some of Down to Earth doesn't make much sense without prior knowledge of They Had to See Paris; in particular, the scenes between Pike Peters and Grand Duke Michael (Theodore Lodi), a Russian aristocrat now reduced to working as a doorman, are far funnier when placed in context with the earlier film. Still, any Will Rogers film is worth watching, if only because Rogers is in it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Dorothy Jordan, (more)
- 1931
Bill Harper (Will Rogers), a cattle baron turned diplomat, is assigned to the middle European country of Sylvania, which is in a nearly constant state of uproar ever since King Lothar (Ray Milland), who is convinced Queen Vania (Marguerite Churchill) was having an affair, left the country. Their young son Paul (Tad Alexander) is supposedly the leader, but it's really ruled by scheming Prince de Polikoff (Gustav Von Seyffertitz), who instantly dislikes the easygoing Bill, who makes friends with Paul and Vania. Lothar, who sneaked back into the country disguised as Bill's pilot, tries to reconcile with Vania, but to no avail. Thanks to de Polikoff's plans, Bill is arrested -- just as Lothar starts a revolution. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Marguerite Churchill, (more)
- 1931
In this comedy, a successful owner of a meat-packing plant tries to pass on his obsession for punctuality and rules to his two sons. But both of them are spoiled playboys who care little for time. One loves cafe society and the many girls he meets there; the other has bohemian affectations and hangs out with the artists in Greenwich Village. One day, their rigid stodgy father meets a lively Irish lass who inspires him to break free from his voluntary enslavement. He begins dressing stylishly and hanging out at the race track. The sons see him squiring the girl about town and they are appalled. When the father learns that the girl is being blackmailed, he rushes to her aid. The sons are so upset that they become responsible and more like he once was. Fortunately, it all turns out for the best when they discover that their father and the married girl only had a platonic relationship. She ends up reconciling with her husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Lucien Littlefield, (more)
- 1931
This Mark Twain adaptation affords a rare opportunity to enjoy a "collaboration" between two of America's greatest humorists. Will Rogers plays the operator of a tiny radio repair shop, who is called to an old mansion to replace a battery on a dark and stormy night. Here Will meets a scientist (William Farnum) who thinks he can contact King Arthur by radio, a sinister butler (Brandon Hurst), a pair of young lovers who've been forbidden to see one another, and a seductive femme fatale (Myrna Loy). Suffering a blow on the head, Rogers wakes up in 9th-century Camelot. "Could you please tell me where the helleth I am?" Rogers remarks when captured by Sir Sagramor (Brandon Hurst); condemned to burn at the stake as a "sorcerer," Rogers saves himself by pretending to conjure up a solar eclipse. Dubbed Sir Boss, Rogers brings 20th-century mechanization to Camelot, taking time out for long, ad-libbed ramblings about the state of the world in 1931. Sir Boss' new friend King Arthur (William Farnum) is being undermined by Morgan le Fey (Myrna Loy) and Merlin (Brandon Hurst). After finding out that Clarence is his own ancestor, Rogers races against time to keep Clarence alive and get him married to Melisande (Maureen O'Sullivan). The last-minute ride to the rescue finds King Arthur's knights commandeering Model Ts, tanks and autogiros Connecticut Yankee predates Wizard of Oz by having the characters in Camelot and the residents of the modern-day mansion played by the same actors. In the original prints, Rogers' face was tinted red after receiving a kiss from Myrna Loy; this cute sight gag has been restored by computer to the videocassette version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, William Farnum, (more)
- 1930
Lightnin' is based on the 1918 stage play by Winchell Smith and Frank Bacon, in which Bacon (the father of director Lloyd Bacon) had starred for years on Broadway and "the road." Will Rogers steps into the leading role as "Lightnin'" Bill Jones, the slow-moving husband of Mary Jones (Louise Dresser). Mr. and Mrs. Jones are co-owners of a hotel built right on the borderline between California and Nevada, used as the temporary home of divorcing wives so that they may pretend to be in the "California" half of the hotel while establishing residency in the "Nevada" half. Lightnin' befriends lawyer John Marvin (Joel McCrea), at present residing in the California half to avoid arrest on a trumped-charge. When Lightnin' refuses to sell his share of the hotel to a gang of stock crooks headed by Raymond Thomas (Jason Robards Sr.), Mary is coerced into divorcing her husband so that she can sign over the deed herself. In the semi-serious courtroom finale, Lightnin' not only convinces Mary that she's still in love with him but also manages to clear John Marvin's name. Director Henry King clearly exercised no control over Will Rogers, whose incessant ad-libbing, amusing though it is, slows the film to a crawl. Still, Lightnin' proved to be just as successful as any other Rogers talkie vehicle, proving that audiences came to see the star and not the story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Louise Dresser, (more)
- 1930
Filmed in "Fox Grandeur," an early widescreen process, Happy Days was the immediate follow-up to Fox Studios' Movietone Follies of 1929. Most of the film takes place on the showboat of Mississippi entrepreneur Colonel Billy Batcher (Charles E. Evans). When the Colonel faces foreclosure after several failing seasons, soubrette Margie (Marjorie White) stages a fund-raising revue on the boat, enlisting the aid of all the big stars who got their start with Batcher. By an amazing coincidence, virtually all of the showboat alumni are under contract to Fox Studios! Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell perform "We'll Build a Little World of Our Own," Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe kid their roughneck screen images in the novelty number "Vic and Eddie," Sharon Lynn and Ann Pennington offer the "hot" dance routine "Snake Hips," and "Whispering" Jack Smith offers a rendition of the title tune. Also on hand are Will Rogers, El Brendel, Walter Catlett (who also staged the musical numbers), Lew Brice (Fanny's brother), Dixie Lee (Mrs. Bing Crosby) and Georgie Jessel -- not to mention an uncredited 14-year-old chorus girl named Betty Grable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1930
Will Rogers' second starring talkie feature was a spiritual twin of the first, They Had to See Paris, albeit with a significant change of locale. Although newly rich Texas mill owner Hiram Draper (Rogers) intensely despises all things British (dismissing the country as the land of "marmalade eaters"), he is forced by business considerations to journey to London. Going along for the ride are his wife (Irene Rich, who had costarred with Rogers in They Had to See Paris), and his son Hiram Junior (Frank Albertson). Upon the family's arrival, Junior falls in love with Elinor (Maureen O'Sullivan), daughter of aristocratic Lord Percy Worthing (Lumsden Hare), whose opinion of "Yankees" is about as low and disdainful as is Hiram's attitude towards "Limeys." Through a series of amusing incidents, not least of which is a zany hunting expedition, Hiram and Lord Percy become friends, consoling themselves to the marriage of their children. Highlights in this episodic star vehicle include the famous early sequence in which Hiram, who was born in Oklahoma while it was still "Indian Territory", tries to get a passport without the necessary U.S. birth certificate; and the finale, in which the two proud fathers perform a "singing duel" of their respective national anthems. Based on the successful stage play by Arthur F. Goodrich (which had originally starred George M. Cohan), So This is London was remade eight years later as one of 20th Century-Fox's "Jones Family" B-pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Irene Rich, (more)
- 1929
Will Rogers' first all-talking feature casts the beloved humorist as Pike Peters, owner of an auto repair shop in Claremore, OK (Rogers' real-life home town). Living in genteel but contented poverty, Pike and his family suddenly find themselves millionaires when an oil well in which he is part-owner comes in a gusher. Though Pike remains the same humble, down-to-earth fellow that he was before his good fortune, his social-climbing wife (Irene Rich) instantly begins taking on airs, insisting that the family spend a year in Paris. Reluctantly, Pike agrees, and before long he, his wife, his daughter, Opal (Marguerite Churchill), and son, Ross (Owen Davis Jr.) are seeing the sights in the City of Lights. Determined to crash Parisian high society and land a wealthy nobleman husband for daughter Opal, Mrs. Peters callously insists that her "embarrassing" husband keep his distance at all social gatherings. Not surprisingly, the Peters family unit begins to unravel, with Opal succumbing to the charms of silky gigolo Marquis de Brissac (Ivan Lebedeff), and Ross living a life of debauchery in the Latin Quarter with French floozy Fleury (Marcelle Corday). Though Pike manages to make a friend of exiled Russian grand duke Mikhail (Theodore Lodi), he simply cannot coordinate himself with his wife's incessant title-chasing, nor can he convince her that her new "friends" are only interested in her money. Cast out of the hotel suite he shares with his wife, the crestfallen Pike heads to a sidewalk café, where he renews his platonic friendship with vivacious cabaret entertainer Claudine (Fifi D'Orsay, whose saucy performance caused a bit of trouble with the local movie censors of the era). With her help, Pike cooks up a scheme to bring his family back together by pretending that he's "gone Parisian" and has taken Claudine as his mistress. Adapted from a 1926 novel by Homer Croy (and a subsequent stage version by May Savell Croy), They Had to See Paris remains one of Will Rogers' most entertaining talkies, with the star ad-libbing to his heart's content. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Irene Rich, (more)
- 1927
Though Will Rogers was still packing 'em in on Broadway, he was considered a Hollywood has-been when he starred in the independently produced A Texas Steer. Rogers also wrote the screenplay of this "topical comedy," in which he plays Texas rancher Maverick Brander, who is maneuvered into politics by his status-seeking wife Ma (Louise Fazenda). Unfortunately, Maverick finds himself at the mercy of a trio of corrupt political hacks who want our hero to use his influence to push through a piece of questionable legislation. The opponents of the bill contrive to abduct Maverick, but he escapes in time to strike a blow for honesty in Washington. The level of humor in the film can be gauged by such character names as "Bossy Brander," "Dixie Style" and "Fairleigh Bright." A Texas Steer had its moments, but Will Rogers would have to wait until talkies arrived to fully blossom as a film star. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Louise Fazenda, (more)
- 1927
Another of English producer-director Herbert Wilcox's collaborations with American star Dorothy Gish, Tiptoes was also one of the most successful of the batch. Gish plays one-third of a Yankee vaudeville act, who try out some new material in a Liverpool music hall. When their act bombs, our heroine casts about for another source of income. She concocts a scheme whereby she will pose as a wealthy aristocrat, the better to inveigle a nobleman into marriage. But none of this really matters: the real "selling angle" in Tiptoes was the presence of legendary American humorist Will Rogers, cast as Gish's down-to-earth vaude partner (the third member of the trio was Nelson Keays, a popular British song-and-dance man in his own right). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Gish, Will Rogers, (more)
