Frank Perry discovers that his wife desires him to become a Mason. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Perry goes out for several nights to carouse and have fun while telling his wife that he is undergoing initiation at the Masonic lodge. When his wife invites her father, a Grand Master of the Masons, for a visit, Frank goes to comedic lengths to avoid being found out. The farce is magnified by the circumstance that his father-in-law has also been lying about his Masonic association.[3]
The film was based on a 1901 farce by Leo Ditrichstein, who in turn adapted it from a German play, Die Logenbrüder (The Freemason), by Curt Kraatz and Carl Laufs.[4]
Are You a Mason? was Barrymore's third feature-length film as well as his third film under contract to Famous Players.[5] Up and coming film hero Harold Lockwood had also appeared in Barrymore's earlier The Man from Mexico in 1914.
Release and reception
Are You a Mason? was released on March 22, 1915.
Louella Parsons, writing for the Chicago Herald, praised the picture, and Barrymore in particular.[6]The New York Dramatic Mirror called it a "screen comedy triumph", and found nothing in it to criticize.[7] In Moving Picture World, reviewer Lynde Denig also liked the picture and thought that Barrymore improved on his earlier good performances.[8]
The Variety reviewer was unimpressed, describing it as "a decidedly mild comedy" and saying that it had "innumerable opportunities for comedy situations, most of which have been sadly neglected"; the reviewer went on to credit Barrymore with whatever laughs the film was able to deliver.[9]
It was re-released by Paramount in 1919 under their temporary re-issue banner The Success-Series, celebrating some of the company's major early first successes.[10] A 1922 remake was planned for Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle but was dropped[2] due to the Virginia Rappe murder scandal which ruined his career. The comedy was filmed again as a talkie in 1934.
1 2 Bennett, Carl, ed. (December 13, 2008). "Are You a Mason?". Progressive Silent Film List. Retrieved 2015-11-09– via Silent Era.
↑ Synopsis of film: "Are You a Mason?". Manufacturers' Advance Notes. Moving Picture World. 23 (12): 1786. March 20, 1915. Also, "Are You a Mason?". Brief Stories of the Week's Film Releases. Motography. XIII (13): 509. March 27, 1915.
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