''The Cock-Eyed World'' is a 1929 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

. One of the earliest "talkies", it was a sequel to '' What Price Glory?'' (1926), it was directed and written by

Raoul Walsh Raoul Walsh (born Albert Edward Walsh; March 11, 1887December 31, 1980) was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He wa ...

and based on the Flagg and Quirt story by

Maxwell Anderson James Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist. Background Anderson was born on December 15, 1888, in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to ...

, Tom Barry, Wilson Mizner, and

Laurence Stallings Laurence Tucker Stallings (November 25, 1894 – February 28, 1968) was an American playwright, screenwriter, lyricist, literary critic, journalist, novelist, and photographer. Best known for his collaboration with Maxwell Anderson on the 1924 pl ...

Fox Film Corporation The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...

released the film at the Roxy in New York on August 3, 1929. The film stars

Victor McLaglen Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen (10 December 1886 – 7 November 1959) was a British boxer-turned-Hollywood actor.Obituary ''Variety'', 11 November 1959, page 79. He was known as a character actor, particularly in Westerns, and made sev ...

and

Edmund Lowe Edmund Dantes Lowe (March 3, 1890 – April 21, 1971) was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film. Biography Lowe was born in San Jose, California. His father was a local judge. His childhood home was a ...

, reprising their original roles, as well as

Lili Damita Lili Damita (born Liliane Marie-Madeleine Carré; 10 July 1904 – 21 March 1994) was a French-American actress and singer who appeared in 33 films between 1922 and 1937. Early life and education Lili Damita was born Liliane Marie-Madeleine Car ...

. The picture was also released in a silent version on October 5, 1929.

Plot

Flagg (Victor McLaglen) and Quirt (Edmund Lowe) find themselves transferred from Russia to Brooklyn to South America, in each place squaring off over a local beauty. The film remains one of the earliest screen sequels to a critical and popular success with the two lead actors playing the same characters, as well as the original writers and director intact from the first picture.

Cast

as Top Sergeant Flagg *

as Sergeant Harry Quirt *

as Mariana Elenita *Leila Karnelly as Olga *

El Brendel Elmer Goodfellow "El" Brendel (March 25, 1890 – April 9, 1964) was an American vaudeville comedian turned movie star, best remembered for his dialect routine as a Swedish immigrant. His biggest role was as "Single-0" in the sci-fi musical ' ...

as 'Yump' Olson * Joe Brown as Brownie *

Stuart Erwin Stuart Erwin (February 14, 1903 – December 21, 1967) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Early years Erwin was born in Squaw Valley, Fresno County, California. He attended Porterville High School and the University o ...

as Buckley

Opening week record

According to ''Variety'', the film beat every known gross for any box office attraction throughout the world with a reported first week gross of $173,391 at the Roxy. It grossed another record $173,667 in its second week.''Variety''
August 21, 1929, p. 9.

References

External links

* * * 1929 films 1929 musical comedy films American musical comedy films American black-and-white films Films directed by Raoul Walsh Military humor in film Films about the United States Marine Corps Fox Film films 1920s English-language films 1920s American films {{musical-comedy-film-stub