Running Wild (1927/I)

Director:

Gregory La Cava

Writers:

Roy Briant (adaptation) (titles)
Gregory La Cava (story)

Release Date:

11 June 1927 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Cowardly Elmer Finch is browbeaten by his wife, daughter, fat son and the family dog. After hypnosis he is domineering...

Plot Keywords:

Stepson | Stepfather Stepson Relationship | Hypnotism

Cast

W.C. Fields	...	Elmer Finch
Mary Brian	...	Elizabeth
Marie Shotwell	...	Mrs. Finch
Claude Buchanan	...	Dave Harvey
Frederick Burton	...	Mr. Harvey
Barnett Raskin	...	Junior
Frank Evans	...	Amos Barker
Edward Roseman	...	Arvo, the Hypnotist

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation

Quotes:

Elmer Finch: I'm a lion!
[intertitle]

Younger, more active Fields in fine silent comedy

Report from Cinevent 2007: RUNNING WILD (****) One of the few W.C. Fields silents NOT remade as a Paramount talkie-- though the setup is awfully close to The Man on the Flying Trapeze, with Fields as an office drudge with a messy desk and a wife and pampered stepson who have him beaten down. The turning point of the plot takes it in a more visual direction, though-- his inner lion is released by a hypnotist and he literally runs wild, delivering comeuppance to all his tormentors in a lengthy comedy-action sequence. It had the audience in stitches, and showed that while his silents lack one of the talkies' great assets-- his voice-- they also had sides of his persona lacking in the films made when he was older and less agile.