Two Arabian Knights is an American comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

, directed by Lewis Milestone

Lewis Milestone

Lewis Milestone was a Russian-American motion picture director. He is known for directing Two Arabian Knights and All Quiet on the Western Front , both of which received Academy Awards for Best Director...

 and starring William Boyd

William Boyd (actor)

William Lawrence Boyd was an American film actor best known for portraying Hopalong Cassidy.-Biography:...

 and Mary Astor

Mary Astor

Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...

. A 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...

, Two Arabian Knights was produced by Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes

Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...

 and was distributed by United Artists

United Artists

United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....

.

Plot

The plot centers on two American soldiers during the First World War, who escape from a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 prison camp and face many adventures in Arabia.

Production background

The movie was filmed in the US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and has a running time of 92 minutes. The supporting cast includes Louis Wolheim

Louis Wolheim

Louis Wolheim was an American character actor.His trademark broken nose was the result of an injury sustained while playing football for Cornell University. Despite his rugged visage, Wolheim was intelligent and cultivated, speaking French, German, Spanish, and Yiddish. He was also a mathematics...

, Michael Vavitch, Ian Keith

Ian Keith

-Life and career:Born Keith Ross in Boston, Massachusetts, Ian Keith was a veteran character actor of the legitimate theater, and appeared in a variety of colorful roles in silent features of the 1920s. His stage training made him a natural choice for the new "talking pictures"; he played John...

, and DeWitt Jennings

DeWitt Jennings

DeWitt Clarke Jennings was an American film actor. He appeared in 153 films between 1915 and 1937.-Biography:...

. The screenwriters were James T. O'Donohue, Wallace Smith, and George Marion Jr. The film won an Academy Award for Best Comedy Direction.

Preservation

The film was long thought lost before being located in Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes

Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...

' film collection after his death. A print was shepherded by Dr. Hart Wegner of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

University of Nevada-Las Vegas is a public, coeducational university located in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada, USA. The campus is located approximately east of the Las Vegas Strip. The institution includes a Shadow Lane Campus, located just east of the University Medical Center of...

 film for restoration by Jeffrey Masino, along with two other "lost" Hughes-produced films, The Racket

The Racket

The Racket is an American crime film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Thomas Meighan, Marie Prevost, Louis Wolheim, and George E. Stone...

(1928) and The Mating Call

The Mating Call (film)

The Mating Call is a 1928 silent drama film about a WWI vet who takes on the Ku Klux Klan when he loses his wife to a womanizing Klansman. The film was produced by Howard Hughes for his Caddo Corporation, and was originally released by Paramount Pictures...

(1928), both originally released by Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

.

In 2004 and 2006, Turner Classic Movies

Turner Classic Movies

Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...

 broadcast all three films, their first showings in decades.

Cast

• William Boyd
  William Boyd (actor)
  William Lawrence Boyd was an American film actor best known for portraying Hopalong Cassidy.-Biography:...
  
   - W. Dangerfield Phelps III
• Mary Astor
  Mary Astor
  Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
  
   - Mirza
• Louis Wolheim
  Louis Wolheim
  Louis Wolheim was an American character actor.His trademark broken nose was the result of an injury sustained while playing football for Cornell University. Despite his rugged visage, Wolheim was intelligent and cultivated, speaking French, German, Spanish, and Yiddish. He was also a mathematics...
  
   - Sgt. Peter O'Gaffney
• Ian Keith
  Ian Keith
  -Life and career:Born Keith Ross in Boston, Massachusetts, Ian Keith was a veteran character actor of the legitimate theater, and appeared in a variety of colorful roles in silent features of the 1920s. His stage training made him a natural choice for the new "talking pictures"; he played John...
  
   - Shevket Ben Ali
• Michael Vavitch - The Emir
• Michael Visaroff
  Michael Visaroff
  Michael Visaroff was a Russian-born film actor. He appeared in 113 films between 1925 and 1952. He was best known for his uncredited appearance in an early scene of Dracula as the nervous Hungarian innkeeper who, as Renfield is traveling to meet the Count, warns him about the actual existence of...
  
   - The Skipper (as M. Visaroff)
• Boris Karloff
  Boris Karloff
  William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
  
   - The Purser
• DeWitt Jennings
  DeWitt Jennings
  DeWitt Clarke Jennings was an American film actor. He appeared in 153 films between 1915 and 1937.-Biography:...
  
   - American Consul (as De Witt Jennings)
• Nicholas Dunaew - Mirza's Man Servant (as Nicholas Dunaev)
• Jean Vachon
  Jean Vachon
  Jean Vachon was a motion picture actress whose career began in the silent film era. She was the daughter of Mrs. Rosemary Vachon of Los Angeles California....
  
   - Mirza's Maid Servant
• David Cavendish - The Emir's Advisor (as Denis D'Auburn)