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The Better 'Ole (1926 film)
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = The Better 'Ole
| image = File:The Better 'Ole (1926 film).jpg
| caption =
| producer =
| director = Charles Reisner
| writer = Charles Reisner '(adaptation)'
Darryl F. Zanuck '(adaptation)'
Robert Hopkins '(titles)'
| based_on =
| starring = Sydney Chaplin
Doris Hill
Harold Goodwin
Jack Ackroyd
| music = Maurice Baron
| cinematography = Edwin B. DuPar
| editing =
| studio = The Vitaphone Corporation
| distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
| released =
| runtime = 97 minutes
| country = United States
| language = Silent (English intertitles)
| budget = $449,000
| gross = $1,273,000
}}
'The Better 'Ole' is a 1926 American silent World War I comedy drama film. Released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., this film is the second full-length film to utilize the Vitaphone sound-on-disc process, two months after the first Vitaphone feature 'Don Juan'; with no audible dialogue, the film does have a synchronized musical score and sound effects. This film was also the second onscreen adaptation of the 1917 musical 'The Better 'Ole' by Bruce Bairnsfather and Arthur Elliot. Charlie Chaplin's eldest brother Sydney Chaplin played the main lead as Old Bill in perhaps his best-known film today. This film is also believed by many to have the first spoken word of dialog, '"coffee"', although there are those who disagree.Eyman, Scott. 'The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926-1930' At one point during the film, Harold Goodwin's character whispers a word to Sydney Chaplin which is also faintly heard.[http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/864/The-Better-Ole/alternate-versions.html 'The Better 'Ole' Trivia at the TCM Movie Database]
Plot
Old Bill (Sydney Chaplin), a jovial Limey sergeant, discovers that the major of his regiment is a German spy in collusion with Gaspard (Theodore Lorch), the local innkeeper. The spies mistrust him and poison his wine; but it spills and eats a hole in the floor through which Gaspard falls into the cellar. Trying to rescue him, Bill discovers a cote of carrier pigeons. Tipped off by the major, the Germans bomb an opera house where Bill and fellow soldier Alf (Jack Ackroyd) are performing; they escape, however, in their impersonation of a horse and later pose as German soldiers in a German regiment. Bill manages to get a photograph of the major greeting the German general, but it falls into the hands of Joan (Doris Hill), a prisoner of war. Bill is forced to join a German attack against the British, and though he saves his own regiment, he is shot as a German spy. An old friend, however, has substituted blank cartridges for the real ones, and Bill is pardoned when Joan and his friend Bert arrive with the incriminating photograph.
Cast
*Sydney Chaplin as Pvt. William 'Old Bill' Busby
*Doris Hill as Joan
*Harold Goodwin as Bert Chester - Secret Service
*Jack Ackroyd as Alfie "Little Alf"
*Edgar Kennedy as Cpl. Austin
*Theodore Lorch as Gaspard
*Charles Gerrar as Maj. Russett
*Tom McGuire as The English General
*Tom Kennedy as The Blacksmith
*Kewpie Morgan as Gen. von Hinden
*Arthur Clayton as The Colonel
Premiere Vitaphone short subjects
'The Better 'Ole' premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York City, New York on October 7, 1926.
Box office
According to Warner Bros records the film earned $955,000 domestically and $318,000 foreign.Warner Bros financial information in The William Shaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 5 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
Preservation status
The film, as well at its Vitaphone soundtrack, survive and remain intact, with the exception of one reel, which is currently missing. The film exists in the UCLA Film and Television Archive film archive.[http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/B/BetterOle1926.html 'The Better 'Ole' at the silentera.com database]
Home media
This film was released on DVD-R through the Warner Archive Collection in 2009.
See also
* List of early Warner Bros. sound and talking features
References
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