''What Price Glory?'' is a 1926 American silent comedy-drama war film produced and distributed by

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 ...

and directed by Raoul Walsh. The film is based on the 1924 play '' What Price Glory'' 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 ...

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 ...

and was remade in 1952 as '' What Price Glory'' starring James Cagney. Malcolm Stuart Boylan, founder of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, was title writer on the silent

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

attraction.

Plot

Flagg and Quirt are veteran

United States Marines The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...

whose rivalry dates back a number of years. Flagg is commissioned a captain, he is in command of a company on the front lines of France during World War I. Sergeant Quirt is assigned to Flagg's unit as the senior non-commissioned officer. Flagg and Quirt quickly resume their rivalry, which this time takes its form over the affections of Charmaine, the daughter of the local innkeeper. However, Charmaine's desire for a husband and the reality of war give the two men a common cause.

Cast

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 ...

as 1st Sergeant Quirt *

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 ...

as Captain Flagg * Dolores del Río as Charmaine de la Cognac *

William V. Mong William V. Mong (June 25, 1875 – December 10, 1940) was an American film actor, screenwriter and director. He appeared in almost 200 films between 1910 and 1939. His directing (1911–1918) and screenwriting (1911–1922) were mostly for ...

as Cognac Pete *

Phyllis Haver Phyllis Maude Haver (January 6, 1899 – November 19, 1960) was an American actress of the silent film era. Early life Haver was born in Douglass, Kansas to James Hiram Haver (1872–1936) and Minnie Shanks Malone (1879–1949). When s ...

as Shanghai Mabel * Elena Jurado as Carmen, Philippine girl *

Leslie Fenton Leslie Fenton (12 March 1902 – 25 March 1978) was an English actor and film director. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1923 and 1945. Early life Fenton was born on 12 March 1902 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England. He emigrated to ...

as Lieutenant Moore *

Barry Norton Barry Norton (born Alfredo Carlos Birabén; June 16, 1905 – August 24, 1956) was an Argentine-American actor. He appeared in over 90 films, starting in silent films from 1925 until his death in 1956. He is perhaps best known for his role a ...

as Private 'Mother's Boy' Lewisohn * Sammy Cohen as Private Lipinsky * Ted McNamara as Private Kiper * August Tollaire as French Mayor *

Mathilde Comont Mathilde Comont (9 September 1886 – 21 June 1938), credited also as Mathilda Caumont, was a French-born American actress, primarily of the silent era. Biography Born in Bordeaux, she appeared in films in her native country, particularly ...

as Camille, fat lady * Patrick Rooney as Mulcahy (billed as Pat Rooney) * J. Carrol Naish bit part

Production

Fox acquired the rights to ''What Price Glory?'' for $100,000. The film was directed by Raoul Walsh and released as a

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

on November 23, 1926 in the US, and had a 116-minute running time. On January 21, 1927, a short film of singer Raquel Meller was shown before this feature at the Sam H. Harris Theater in New York City. The short film, not quite synchronized, was the first public presentation of a film in the

Fox Movietone Movietone News is a newsreel that ran from 1928 to 1963 in the United States. Under the name British Movietone News, it also ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986, in France also produced by Fox-Europa, in Australia and New Zealand until 197 ...

sound-on-film Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog ...

system. In January 1927, Fox re-released ''What Price Glory?'' with synchronized sound effects and music in the Movietone system. Part of its fame revolves around the fact that the characters can be seen speaking profanities which are not reflected in the

intertitle In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...

s, but which can be deciphered by lipreaders. The studio was reportedly inundated by calls and letters from enraged Americans, including deaf and hearing impaired people, to whom the vivid profanity between Sergeant Quirt and Captain Flagg was extremely offensive. In the 1924 Broadway play the roles of Captain Flagg and Sgt. Quirt were played by

Louis Wolheim Louis Robert Wolheim (March 28, 1880 – February 18, 1931) was an American actor, of both stage and screen, whose rough physical appearance relegated him to roles mostly of thugs or villains in the movies, but whose talent allowed him to fl ...

, fresh from his triumph in Eugene O'Neill's ''The Hairy Ape'' and William "Stage" Boyd. Curiously Wolheim and the younger William Boyd would play characters similar to Quirt and Flagg in the 1928 film '' Two Arabian Knights''. Although the title is sometimes listed as having a question mark, the Movietone version has simply 'WHAT PRICE GLORY', as does at least one silent trailer as well as some of the posters. In his autobiography,

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition ...

claimed his wife, Violet Hélène Beck Cushing was part of the cast prior to their marriage.

Adaptation

McLaglen and Lowe reprised their roles from the movie in the radio program ''

Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt ''Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt'' is an American old-time radio situation comedy. It was broadcast on the Blue Network from September 28, 1941, until January 25, 1942, and on NBC from February 13, 1942, until April 13, 1942. Format ''Captain Fl ...

'', broadcast on the Blue Network September 28, 1941 – January 25, 1942, and on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

February 13, 1942 – April 3, 1942.

Sequels

*'' The Cock-Eyed World'' (1929) (directed by Raoul Walsh) *''

Women of All Nations ''Women of All Nations'' is a 1931 American pre-Code military comedy film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe, Greta Nissen and El Brendel. It was the second of three sequels to Walsh's 1926 film, '' What Price Glor ...

'' (1931) (directed by Raoul Walsh) *'' The Stolen Jools'' (1931) (cameo) *'' Hot Pepper'' (1933) Lowe and McLaglen played two similar Marines in the

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

film '' Call Out the Marines'' (1942).

References

External links

*
''What Price Glory?''
at SilentEra * {{DEFAULTSORT:What Price Glory? (1926 Film) 1926 films 1920s war comedy-drama films American war comedy-drama films American silent feature films Fox Film films American black-and-white films American films based on plays Films directed by Raoul Walsh Military humor in film Films about the United States Marine Corps Western Front (World War I) films Films set in the Philippines 1920s English-language films 1920s American films Silent war films Silent American comedy-drama films