Tip Toes (1927 film)
Encyclopedia
Tip Toes is a 1927
1927 in film
-Events:*January 10 - Fritz Lang's science-fiction fantasy Metropolis premieres in Germany.*April 7 - Abel Gance's Napoleon often considered his best known and greatest masterpiece, premiers at the Paris Opéra and would demonstrate techniques and equipment that would not be used for years to...

 British silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 comedy-drama, directed by Herbert Wilcox
Herbert Wilcox
Herbert Sydney Wilcox was a British film producer and director.-Early life:Wilcox's mother was from County Cork, Ireland, but he was born in Norwood and attended school in Brighton...

 and starring Dorothy Gish
Dorothy Gish
Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American actress, and the younger sister of actress Lillian Gish.-Early life:...

 and Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....

. The film is a loose adaptation of the stage musical Tip-Toes
Tip-Toes
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 known as the Three Kayes - composed of Al, Uncle Hen, and Tip-Toes - who try to pass themselves off as aristocrats in the upper class community of...

, with the action transferred from Florida to London.

Plot

Tip Toes (Dorothy Gish) and her to 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 in to 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.

Cast

  • Dorothy Gish
    Dorothy Gish
    Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American actress, and the younger sister of actress Lillian Gish.-Early life:...

     as Tip Toes Kaye
  • Will Rogers
    Will Rogers
    William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....

     as Uncle Hen Kaye
  • Nelson Keys as Al Kaye
  • Miles Mander
    Miles Mander
    Miles Mander , born Lionel Henry Mander , was a well-known and versatile English character actor of the early Hollywood cinema, also a film director and producer, and a playwright and novelist.-Early life:Miles Mander was the second son of Theodore Mander, builder of Wightwick Manor, of the prominent...

     as Rollo Stevens
  • Dennis Hoey
    Dennis Hoey
    Dennis Hoey was a British film and stage actor, best known for playing Inspector Lestrade in Universal's Sherlock Holmes series. He played the Master of Harrow in The Foxes of Harrow and appeared in Tarzan and the Leopard Woman. After a career as a singer, Hoey moved to acting on the stage in...

     as Hotelier
  • John Manners as Lord William Montgomery

Reception

Tip Toes was the last in a four-picture deal between Wilcox and Paramount to star Gish in British films. The earlier films (Nell Gwynn, London
London (1926 film)
London is a British silent film, directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Dorothy Gish. The film was adapted by Wilcox from a short story by popular author Thomas Burke...

and Madame Pompadour
Madame Pompadour (film)
Madame Pompadour is a 1927 British historical drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Dorothy Gish, Antonio Moreno and Nelson Keys...

) 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
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

accused the film of being "not only a libel on Americans, but on American vaudeville and its artists".

No print of Tip Toes is known to survive, and the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...

 include it on their '"75 Most Wanted
BFI 75 Most Wanted
The BFI 75 Most Wanted is a list compiled by the British Film Institute of their most sought-after British feature films not currently held in the BFI National Archive, and classified as "missing, believed lost". The films chosen range from quota quickies and B-movies to lavish prestige...

" 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.
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