Mister Antonio

This is a fairly good early talkie, thanks to a good original story by Booth Tarkington and an amusing performance by Leo Carillo who, in this phase of his career, always wound up playing Italians. Here he seems to be channeling Chico Marx and he comes to the rescue of orphan Virginia Valli, who has been tossed out of her uncle's house for drinking ginger ale in a road road while he is running for election on a temperance ticket, and he'll keep the two thousand dollars left her, thank you.

Given that start, I don't have to tell you how everything turns out. The performances are good. Carillo's role was originally intended for Otis Skinner, but he dropped out for some reason. Cinematographer Ernest Miller -- who spent his long career mostly shooting B Westerns -- and editor Arthur Roberts manage to keep you from noticing the stage-bound shooting by a careful combination of cutting and changing perspective. The sound track is a little thin and scratchy, but that might be an artifact of this particular print.

There are several amusing lines scattered throughout the dialogue and the result is a pleasant, if old-fashioned time waster.