The Matinee Idol (1928)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Frank Capra

Writers:

Robert Lord (story) and
Ernest Pagano (story) ...

Release Date:

14 March 1928 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

A Broadway matinee idol famous for his black-face portrayals anonymously joins an amateur acting troupe and falls in love with the leading lady.

Plot Keywords:

Blackface | Producer | Leading Lady | Civil War | Gay Actor

Cast

Bessie Love	...	Ginger Bolivar
Johnnie Walker	...	Don Wilson - aka Harry Mann
Ernest Hilliard	...	Arnold Wingate
Lionel Belmore	...	Jasper Bolivar
David Mir	...	Eric Barrymaine

Runtime:

66 min (copyright length) (24 fps) | USA:56 min (1997 alternate version)

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | USA:Approved

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

This restored version runs 57 minutes but is still missing about 5 minutes. The restoration was a joint venture of the Cinematheque Francais, the Motion Picture Academy, and Sony Entertainment.

Quotes:

Don Wilson, Harry Mann: [after meeting a feminine actor] Who is that? Helen of Troy?

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Lady with the Torch (1999)

Amusing Early Capra Silent

If this were not an early silent effort by master director Frank Capra, "The Matinée Idol" would likely have remained a lost film. However, this mildly amusing film has been found and restored, and it is well worth seeing to note how deft a director Capra was in his silent works. Led by an attractive pair of leads, Bessie Love and Johnny Walker, the familiar device of a bad stage play getting even worse during an inept performance is used to good effect here (actually used twice) and offers a few chuckles even to those who have seen this done to death in later films from "Auntie Mame" to "Noises Off." Unfortunately, as with many Capra films, there is a bitter aftertaste that lingers in the viewer's mind when the film is over. Using an honest effort by naive "country folks" as the object of amusement for "sophisticated" Broadway audiences is a cruel idea and forms the crux of the plot. Also, Capra has cast the lead actor as a black-face entertainer, which will make some viewers uncomfortable or even appalled, and Capra uses a gay "sissie" stereotype who is the object of other characters' derision, which is even more offensive to contemporary viewers. Although another use of black-face in a Capra film does not come to mind, he was not above using the "sissie" stereotype again, and it reappeared as the Edward Everett Horton character in "Lost Horizon." However, if one can overlook the dated plot and negative stereotyping, "The Matinée Idol" provides an hour of amusement and a peek at the formative years of a great film director.