Tip Toes | |
---|---|
Directed by | Herbert Wilcox |
Written by | Guy Bolton (play) Fred Thompson (play) |
Produced by | Herbert Wilcox |
Starring | Dorothy Gish Will Rogers |
Cinematography | Roy Overbaugh |
Production company | British National Films |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Country | United Kingdom |
Languages | Silent film English intertitles |
Budget | £54,000 [1] |
Tip Toes is a 1927 British silent film comedy-drama, directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Dorothy Gish and Will Rogers. [2] The film is a loose adaptation of the stage musical Tip-Toes , with the action transferred from Florida to London.
Tip Toes (Dorothy Gish) and her two partners Uncle Hen (Rogers) and Al (Nelson Keys) have a struggling music-hall act. When they go for auditions, theatre managers are keen on Tip Toes as a solo, but do not want the men. Tip Toes turns down offers to go it alone out of loyalty to her fellows. In deep financial trouble, they decide as a last throw of the dice to book into a suite at a high-class hotel and put the story about that Tip Toes is a sophisticated heiress, while she tries to snag a wealthy gentleman. Tip Toes attracts the interest of a young peer, but the plans of the trio are constantly on the point of being undermined as Hen and Al get into a series of scrapes.
A writer was paid £2,000 to do a script but Wilcox threw it out. [1] Paramount contributed only £20,000 of the production cost. [3]
Tip Toes was the last in a four-picture deal between Wilcox and Paramount to star Gish in British films. The earlier films ( Nell Gwyn , London and Madame Pompadour ) had all been relatively favourably received by contemporary critics; however Tip Toes appears to have attracted almost universally negative responses. The Bioscope dismissed it as "feeble", while Variety accused the film of being "not only a libel on Americans, but on American vaudeville and its artists".
The film lost money. [1]
No print of Tip Toes is known to survive, and the British Film Institute include it on their '"75 Most Wanted" list of missing British feature films. It is considered of great potential interest to silent cinema historians, not only as a prestige production involving star names, but to assess whether it really was a disastrous misfire justifying its terrible reception, or whether a modern perspective would view the film more kindly. [4]
Lillian Diana Gish was an American actress. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th-greatest female movie star of Classic Hollywood cinema.
Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American stage and screen actress. Dorothy and her older sister Lillian Gish were major movie stars of the silent era. Dorothy also had great success on the stage, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Dorothy Gish was noted as a fine comedian, and many of her films were comedies.
Herbert Sydney Wilcox CBE was a British film producer and director.
Tip-Toes is a musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. It centers on a vaudeville act composed of Tip-Toes, her brother and her uncle, who try to pass her off as an aristocrat to snare a millionaire husband. Farcical complications ensue involving Tip-Toes' temporary amnesia and a marital infidelity subplot.
Nell Gwyn is a 1934 British historical drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Cedric Hardwicke, Jeanne de Casalis, Miles Malleson and Moore Marriott. The film portrays the historical romance between Charles II of England and the actress Nell Gwyn. In the opening credits, the dialogue is credited to "King Charles II, Samuel Pepys and Nell Gwyn" with additional dialogue by Miles Malleson. It was also released as Mistress Nell Gwyn.
Badger's Green is a 1934 British comedy film directed by Adrian Brunel and starring Valerie Hobson, Bruce Lester, David Horne and Wally Patch. It was adapted from the 1930 play Badger's Green by R.C. Sheriff. A picturesque village is threatened with redevelopment by a speculative builder, leading to widespread protest. In the end the builder agrees to settle the future of the village on the result of a cricket match.
London is a 1926 British silent romantic drama film, directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Dorothy Gish. The film was adapted by Wilcox from a short story by popular author Thomas Burke. The British Film Institute considers this to be a lost film.
Madame Pompadour is a 1927 British silent historical drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Dorothy Gish, Antonio Moreno and Nelson Keys. The film depicts the life of Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV of France. It was the first film to be shot at the newly christened Elstree Studios.
Mademoiselle from Armentieres is a 1926 British World War I silent drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Estelle Brody, John Stuart and Alf Goddard. The film was Elvey's first collaboration with screenwriter Victor Saville. It was followed by a 1928 sequel Mademoiselle Parley Voo.
Three Steps in the Dark is a 1953 British mystery film directed by Daniel Birt and starring Greta Gynt, Hugh Sinclair and Sarah Lawson. It was produced as a second feature and shot at the Kensington Studios in London. The film's sets were designed by the art director Bernard Robinson.
Wolves is a 1930 British crime film directed by Albert de Courville and starring Charles Laughton, Dorothy Gish and Malcolm Keen. The screenplay concerns a woman who is captured by a gang of criminals operating in the Arctic, only for the leader to later help her escape. It was based on a play by Georges Toudouze. It was produced by Herbert Wilcox's British and Dominions Film Corporation, but filmed at the Blattner Studios whilst sound equipment was being installed at Wilcox's nearby Imperial Studios, and the sound was added after filming was completed. It was Gish's first sound film, and was Laughton's second talkie, having completed a film of a musical variety performance earlier the same year. Of 57 minutes original duration, it was released in 1936 in a 37-minute version retitled "Wanted Men".
Flames of Passion is a 1922 British silent film drama directed by Graham Cutts, starred Mae Marsh and C. Aubrey Smith.
Hammer the Toff is a 1952 British second feature crime film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring John Bentley and Patricia Dainton. The film was based on the 1947 novel of the same name by John Creasey, the 17th in the series featuring upper-class sleuth Richard Rollinson, also known as "The Toff".
Tiptoe is the body posture of standing on one's toes.
Nell Gwyn is a 1926 British silent romance film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Dorothy Gish, Randle Ayrton and Juliette Compton. It was based on the 1926 novel Mistress Nell Gwyn by Marjorie Bowen and follows the life of Nell Gwynne, the mistress of Charles II. Wilcox later made a second version of the film in 1934, Nell Gwynn which starred Anna Neagle.
Mumsie is a 1927 British silent drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Pauline Frederick, Nelson Keys and Herbert Marshall. It was adapted from the 1920 play of the same title by Edward Knoblock about a favourite son of a family who proves to be a coward when war breaks out. Pauline Frederick's last silent film. Mumsie is a lost film. It was made at Twickenham Studios.
Battling Jane is a 1918 American silent comedy-drama film. It was directed by Elmer Clifton as a vehicle for Dorothy Gish and included some patriotic overtones. According to the Progressive Silent Film List at SilentEra.com, it is not known whether the film currently survives.
The Hope Chest is an American silent comedy-drama film released in 1918, starring Dorothy Gish. The film was directed by Elmer Clifton and based on a serialized story by Mark Lee Luther, originally published in Woman's Home Companion. It is not known whether the film currently survives.
I'll Get Him Yet is a lost 1919 American silent comedy film starring Dorothy Gish and directed by Elmer Clifton. It was produced by D. W. Griffith under his production unit New Art Film. Paramount Pictures distributed the film.
Nugget Nell is a 1919 American comedy silent film directed by Elmer Clifton and written by John R. Cornish. The film stars Dorothy Gish, David Butler, Raymond Cannon, Regina Sarle, Jim Farley, and Bob Fleming. The film was released on July 27, 1919, by Paramount Pictures. It is not known whether the film currently survives.