What Price Glory? (1926 film)

What Price Glory?
	German language release poster
Directed by	Raoul Walsh
Produced by	William Fox
Written by	James T. O'Donohoe (scenario); Malcolm Stuart Boylan (intertitles)
Based on	What Price Glory?; by Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings
Starring	Victor McLaglen; Edmund Lowe; Dolores del Río; Phyllis Haver
Music by	Ernö Rapée; Lew Pollack
Cinematography	Barney McGill; John Marta; John Smith
Distributed by	Fox Film Corporation
Release date	November 23, 1926;
Running time	116 mins.
Country	United States
Language	Silent film (English intertitles)
Box office	$2 million[1]

What Price Glory? is a 1926 American silent comedy-drama war film produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation and directed by Raoul Walsh. The film is based on the 1924 play What Price Glory by Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings and was remade in 1952 as What Price Glory starring James Cagney.[2][3] Malcolm Stuart Boylan, founder of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, was title writer on the silent Fox attraction.[4]

Plot

Flagg and Quirt are veteran United States Marines whose rivalry dates back a number of years. Flagg is commissioned a Captain, he is in command of a company on the front lines of France during World War I. Sergeant Quirt is assigned to Flagg's unit as the senior non-commissioned officer. Flagg and Quirt quickly resume their rivalry, which this time takes its form over the affections of Charmaine, the daughter of the local innkeeper. However, Charmaine's desire for a husband and the reality of war give the two men a common cause.

Cast

Edmund Lowe as 1st Sergeant Quirt
Victor McLaglen as Captain Flagg
Dolores del Río as Charmaine de la Cognac
William V. Mong as Cognac Pete
Phyllis Haver as Shanghai Mabel
Elena Jurado as Carmen, Philippine girl
Leslie Fenton as Lieutenant Moore
Barry Norton as Private 'Mother's Boy' Lewisohn
Sammy Cohen as Private Lipinsky
Ted McNamara as Private Kiper
August Tollaire as French Mayor
Mathilde Comont as Camille, fat lady
Patrick Rooney as Mulcahy (billed as Pat Rooney)
J. Carrol Naish bit part

Production

Edmund Lowe, Dolores del Río and Victor McLaglen in What Price Glory?

The film was directed by Raoul Walsh and released as a silent film by Fox Film Corporation on November 23, 1926 in the US, and had a 116-minute running time. On January 21, 1927, a short film of singer Raquel Meller was shown before this feature at the Sam H. Harris Theater in New York City. The short film, not quite synchronized, was the first public presentation of a film in the Fox Movietone sound-on-film system.[5] In January 1927, Fox re-released What Price Glory? with synchronized sound effects and music in the Movietone system.[6]

Part of its fame revolves around the fact that the characters can be seen speaking profanities which are not reflected in the intertitles, but which can be deciphered by lipreaders. The studio was reportedly inundated by calls and letters from enraged Americans, including deaf and hearing impaired people, to whom the vivid profanity between Sergeant Quirt and Captain Flagg was extremely offensive.

In the 1924 Broadway play the roles of Captain Flagg and Sgt. Quirt were played by Louis Wolheim, fresh from his triumph in Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape and William "Stage" Boyd. Curiously Wolheim and the younger William Boyd would play characters similar to Quirt and Flagg in the 1928 film Two Arabian Knights.

In his autobiography, Peter Cushing claimed his own wife Violet Helen Beck Cushing was part of the cast prior to their marriage.

Adaptation

McLaglen and Lowe reprised their roles from the movie in the radio program Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt, broadcast on the Blue Network September 28, 1941 – January 25, 1942, and on NBC February 13, 1942 – April 3, 1942.[7]

Sequels

The Cock-Eyed World (1929) (directed by Raoul Walsh)
Women of All Nations (1931) (directed by Raoul Walsh)
The Stolen Jools (1931) (cameo)
Hot Pepper (1933)

Lowe and McLaglen played two similar Marines in the RKO Radio Pictures film Call Out the Marines (1942).

References

"The All Time Best Sellers". International Motion Picture Almanac 1937-38. Quigley Publishing Company. p. 942. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
Arthur Gewirtz, James J. Kolb (2004). Art, Glitter, and Glitz: Mainstream Playwrights and Popular Theatre in 1920s America. Praeger/GreenwoodPlays. ISBN 0-313-32467-0.
What Price Glory the play as produced on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre, September 5, 1924 to September 12, 1925, 435 performances; IBDB.com database
Staedeli, Thomas. "Porträt des Drehbuchautor Malcolm Stuart Boylan". Swiss SIlent Film Website. Cyranos2000. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
Edwin M. Bradley, The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 through 1932 (McFarland, 2004) p6
SilentEra entry
Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 136–137. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved 2019-09-14.

External links

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[quig-1] "The All Time Best Sellers". International Motion Picture Almanac 1937-38. Quigley Publishing Company. p. 942. Retrieved April 8, 2018.

[2] Arthur Gewirtz, James J. Kolb (2004). Art, Glitter, and Glitz: Mainstream Playwrights and Popular Theatre in 1920s America. Praeger/GreenwoodPlays. ISBN 0-313-32467-0.

[3] What Price Glory the play as produced on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre, September 5, 1924 to September 12, 1925, 435 performances; IBDB.com database

[4] Staedeli, Thomas. "Porträt des Drehbuchautor Malcolm Stuart Boylan". Swiss SIlent Film Website. Cyranos2000. Retrieved 22 January 2014.

[5] Edwin M. Bradley, The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 through 1932 (McFarland, 2004) p6

[6] SilentEra entry

[dunningota-7] Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 136–137. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved 2019-09-14.