Keep Smiling (1925 film)

Keep Smiling
Directed by	Albert Austin Gilbert Pratt
Written by	Monty Banks Clyde Bruckman Herman C. Raymaker
Produced by	Monty Banks
Starring	Monty Banks Robert Edeson Anne Cornwall
Cinematography	James Diamond Lee Garmes Barney McGill
Edited by	Claude Berkeley
Production company	Monty Banks Productions
Distributed by	Associated Exhibitors Ideal Films (UK)
Release date	September 6, 1925 (1925-09-06)
Running time	60 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

Keep Smiling is a 1925 American silent comedy film directed by Albert Austin and Gilbert Pratt. It stars Monty Banks (real name Mario Bianchi) and Glen Cavender.[1][2] The film was originally titled "Water Shy".[3]

The story features a boy with a fear of water who invents a life preserver that inflates when it comes in contact with water. Promoting his invention, he becomes involved with a wild speedboat race, a crooked mechanic, and the darling daughter of a boating magnate.[1][4]

Plot

As described in a film magazine reviews,[5] the Boy (Monty Banks), a yokel of the fishing village, has grown up in fear of the water because his father had been lost at sea. He has invented a lifesaving device which he wishes to submit to James P. Ryan, a wealthy shipping magnate. He has a letter of introduction to Ryan which gets mixed up with a letter introducing Bordanni, a famed motor boat racer who is to handle Ryan’s entry in the race classic the following day. The Boy is rushed into a party in full swing (after being supplied with clothes which all fit except for the shoes). Ryan’s daughter Rose (Anne Cornwall), whose life he has once saved, is overjoyed to find that her one-time rescuer is the famous Bordanni and expresses the hope that he will win the race. Of course, in spite of all setbacks, lack of knowledge, and adverse circumstances, he wins a most breath-taking and riotous race — houses, boats, bridges, docks, etc., were just like thin air to him. His boat is demolished, but he is saved because of his lifesaving device.

Cast

• Monty Banks as The Boy
• Robert Edeson as James P. Ryan
• Anne Cornwall as Rose Ryan
• Stanhope Wheatcroft as Gerald Deane
• Glen Cavender as Doublecrosser
• Donald Morelli as Bordanni
• Syd Crossley as Ryan's Butler
• Ruth Holly as Ryan's Secretary
• Martha Franklin as The Mother
• Jack Huff as The Child

Preservation

A print of Keep Smiling was preserved in the Russian archive Gosfilmofond and presented to the Library of Congress in 2010.[1]

References

1. "Russia Presents Library of Congress With Digital Copies of Lost U.S. Silent Films". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
2. James Roots (October 23, 2014). The 100 Greatest Silent Film Comedians. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 357–. ISBN 978-1-4422-3650-9.
3. "Changes in titles". Photoplay. June 1925. p. 134. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
4. American Film Institute (1997). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States. University of California Press. pp. 401–. ISBN 978-0-520-20969-5.
5. "New Pictures: Keep Smiling", Exhibitors Herald, 22 (7), Chicago, Illinois: Exhibitors Herald Company: 63–64, August 8, 1925, retrieved July 16, 2022 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

External links

• Keep Smiling at IMDb