Looking into the 1926 Louise Brooks film It's the Old Army Game, with John Bengtson

Earlier this year, Kino Lorber released the 1926 W.C. Fields / Louise Brooks film It's the Old Army Game on DVD / Blu-ray. It is a lot of fun, not only for Fields delightful performance, but also for Brooks' youthful charm. Except for Brooks' uncredited and atypical bit part in The Street of Forgotten Men, this is the earliest surviving film staring the actress. I recommend every fan get a copy.

Directed by Brooks' future husband, Eddie Sutherland (they married a few months after filming completed),
It’s the Old Army Game is an "uproarious silent comedy in which the inimitable W.C. Fields finds it impossible to get some sleep. It was the fourth film in which Fields appeared, but the first over which he had some control, as it was adapted from his own stage play. Co-starring Louise Brooks (also in her fourth feature), and directed with verve by A. Edward Sutherland, It’s the Old Army Game is a non-stop comedy of errors. Fields plays Elmer Prettywillie, a druggist kept awake by clamorous garbage collectors, a nosy woman seeking a 2-cent stamp, bogus land deals, and phony fortunes."

The new Kino Lorber release has been mastered in 2K from 35mm film elements preserved by The Library of Congress, and features a new score by Ben Model and an audio commentary by film historian James L. Neibaur, author of  the 2017 release The W.C. Fields Films.

My longtime friend John Bengtson, who's been called an archeologist of early cinema, has been looking into the film, and has dug up a bunch of new information which will be of interest to fans of Brooks, Fields and silent film.

Bengtson's 2013 post, W.C. Fields in Palm Beach – It’s the Old Army Game, looks at the estate seen in the film, which was shot mostly on location in Florida. His newest post, It’s The Old Army Game – W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks Bring Magazines to Life, from June 29th, looks at the one particular film in the comedy. I encourage everyone to check out these two posts, as well as John's three fabulous books on Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd.

It's the Old Army Game was officially released on May 25, 1926, though screenings of the film took place prior to that date in Florida. Here is one, for example, in West Palm Beach on May 18 & 19. For more on the film, be sure and check out the Louise Brooks Society filmography page on It's the Old Army Game.

The film also screened early in Miami, Florida -- this time at the Community theater on May 26 & 27, where the newspaper got the stars of the film all mixed up! Clara Bow was to have starred in the film, but was replaced by Brooks. (Bow did play in the 1927 Fields film, Runnin' Wild, which has also just been released on DVD and Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.) Eugene Fields was a popular, sentimental poet of the time, not an actor.

The Miami News still couldn't get the stars right when the film moved to the Olympia theater, starting May 30th, despite the fact that the Paramount supplied advertisement which sat just inches away from the listing on the page correctly named Louise Brooks.

Nevertheless, there was a bit of local pride in the fact that It's the Old Army Game was a "Florida Made Picture". The newspapers took notice.