Underplayed Gems

The Barker (1928)

The Barker poster
Directed by
George Fitzmaurice
Genre
drama film, silent film, romance film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 20m
Rated
NR
Rating
7.0 of 10 from 3 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A traveling carnival barker falls for a young woman and struggles with his own ambitions and the rough life of the carnival circuit. The story focuses on his relationships and the choices he must make.

romanticdramaticnostalgicearthylivelyemotionalsincere

What happens

The Barker is a 1928 American part-talkie pre-Code romantic drama film produced and released by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Pictures, acquired in September 1928. The film was directed by George Fitzmaurice and stars Milton Sills, Dorothy Mackaill, Betty Compson, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The Barker is a part-talkie with talking sequences and sequences with synchronized musical scoring and sound effects. According to the film review in Variety, 44 percent (or 38 minutes) of the total running time featured dialogue. The film was adapted by Benjamin Glazer, Joseph Jackson and Herman J. Mankiewicz from the play by Kenyon Nicholson. The Broadway play of the same name which opened at the Biltmore Theatre January 18, 1927 and ran until July 1927 for 221 performances. In the stage production Walter Huston was "Nifty" and a still relatively unknown Claudette Colbert was "Lou", played in the film by Dorothy Mackaill. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.