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ENDED
SERIES PRESENTED IN 2002
APRIL 21 SUN MATINEE

SUNDAY AFTERNOON RE-DISCOVERIES

SKINNER'S DRESS SUIT

DIRECTOR: William A. Seiter
WRITERS: Rex Taylor, based on the book by Henry Irving Dodge
STARS: Reginald Denny, Laura La Plante
SUPPORTING PLAYERS: Arthur Lake, Hedda Hopper
1926, approx. 75m

Still no raise, but when milquetoast Reginald Denny can't tell the wife, she gets him a celebratory dress suit -- just a big enough feather to break his debt-loaded back, but, boy, does he look good. Maybe white-tie-and-tails networking can save the day.

"[Denny's silent comedies] were expensively mounted pictures with fine directors and top production values. They zipped along at a fast pace, all dominated by the ebullient and breezy personality of Denny. His films were often similar to [Douglas] Fairbanks' in idea, but very much more down to earth...Many of them packed in some pretty exciting action too. Skinner's Dress Suit, with Laura La Plante -- and a lively Charleston sequence -- is my personal favorite; a thoroughly refreshing comedy of manners directed by the maestro of comic froth, William Seiter."
-- William K. Everson.

"Reginald Denny...at this time was a star comedian [he'd later become a very popular character actor in such sound films as Private Lives, Rebecca, and countless others], playing well-meaning young men forever getting into scrapes -- as precise but not as elaborate as those of [Harold] Lloyd, his nearest counterpart. William A. Seiter [Sons of the Desert] directed most of his vehicles, and particularly delightful are his versions of two older films, What Happened to Jones? and Skinner's Dress Suit: what happened to Jones was that he got trapped in his shorts at the ladies' night in the Turkish bath, but Skinner's problem was due to his fondness for the Charleston, spending sprees, and his inability to get to work on time."
-- David Shipman, The Story of Cinema.

"Denny is something of a fashion plate, perfectly knotted tie always firmly in place. If his perennial sunniness belongs anywhere, is in the reserved sort of farce that shades into comedy of manners ...which would have to wait for sound films to assert itself."
-- Walter Kerr, The Silent Clowns.

SHOWTIME: 1:00* (*live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner)

ALSO PLAYING ON SUNDAY, APRIL 21 (separate admission): THE THIN MAN & THE AWFUL TRUTH