''The New Klondike'' is a 1926 American black-and-white silent

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

sports drama film directed by

Lewis Milestone Lewis Milestone (born Leib Milstein (Russian: Лейб Мильштейн); September 30, 1895 – September 25, 1980) was an American film director. Milestone directed '' Two Arabian Knights'' (1927) and '' All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1 ...

for Famous Players–Lasky. The film was set against the backdrop of the

Florida land boom of the 1920s The first real estate bubble in Florida was primarily caused by the economic prosperity of the 1920s coupled with a lack of knowledge about List of Florida hurricanes, storm frequency and poor Building code, building standards. This pioneering e ...

, and stands as

Ben Hecht Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and play ...

's first film assignment.

Plot

Small-town pitcher Thomas Kelly ( Thomas Meighan) is sent to Spring training with his baseball team in Florida, but is fired by the team's jealous manager, Joe Cooley (Jack W. Johnston). Kelly is then talked into being the celebrity endorser for a Florida real estate firm, and his former teammates invest money in the firm through him. Still jealous of Kelly's popularity, Cooley conspires with crooked broker Morgan West (Robert Craig) to sell Kelly and the investors some worthless swampland. Kelly and his friends lose their money, but Kelly struggles to recoup the losses. He eventually makes a fortune, repays the investors, and is himself appointed team manager in place of Cooley.

Cast

* Thomas Meighan as Tom Kelly *

Lila Lee Lila Lee (born Augusta Wilhelmena Fredericka Appel; July 25, 1905 – November 13, 1973) was a prominent screen actress, primarily a leading lady, of the silent film and early sound film eras. Early life The daughter of Augusta Fredericka App ...

as Evelyn Lane * Paul Kelly as Bing Allen *

Tefft Johnson William Tefft Johnson, Jr. (September 23, 1883 – October 15, 1956), better known as Tefft Johnson, was an American stage and film actor, and film director and screenwriter. He appeared in 131 films between 1909 in film, 1909 and 1926 in film, 1 ...

as Col. Dwyer * Hallie Manning as Flamingo Applegate * Robert W. Craig as Morgan West * George De Carlton as Owen * Jack W. Johnston as Joe Cooley * Brenda Lane as Bird Dog * Danny Hayes as The Spieler

Production

Partly filmed on location in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, the film is based upon a short story by Ring Lardner and was inspired by both the national baseball craze and the Florida land boom speculation of 1925. The film itself inspired the 1926 Peggy Griffith novel ''The New Klondike – A Story of a Southern Baseball Training Camp''. The film proved successful enough to secure Thomas Meighan a long-term acting contract with

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. **Paramount Picture ...

Reception

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote, "The wild scramble for Florida real estate is served up in a fairly humorous light in Thomas Meighan's latest production, 'The New Klondike,' which is Thomas J. Geraghty's adaptation of a special story by Ring Lardner." The reviewer noted that the film was predictable and not overburdened with suspense, but that it did provide "several amusing incidents concerned with the activities of the realtors and their victims." The

Brooklyn Eagle The ''Brooklyn Eagle'' (originally joint name ''The Brooklyn Eagle'' and ''Kings County Democrat'', later ''The Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' before shortening title further to ''Brooklyn Eagle'') was an afternoon daily newspaper published in the city ...

review was lukewarm: “’The New Klondike’ may be the world to Tommy Meighan and Ring Lardner, who wrote the story and from whom I have come to expect better and funnier things, but to me it can muster not the slightest ripple of excitement….If there were a single player in ‘The New Klondike’ who deserved by his own effort to survive this bellicose account, it would be Paul Kelly, who plays ‘Bing’ Allen. It is Kelly, by a superb characterization of a bush-league ball player, who ‘steals’ the picture.”

Preservation

A print of ''The New Klondike'' is held in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

film archive. It is a 35mm copy with one

reel A reel is a tool used to store elongated and flexible objects (e.g. yarns/ cords, ribbons, cables, hoses, etc.) by wrapping the material around a cylindrical core known as a '' spool''. Many reels also have flanges (known as the ''rims'') arou ...

missing.the Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''The New Klondike''
/ref>

References

External links

*
''The New Klondike'' at AllMovie
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:New Klondike, The 1926 films 1920s American films 1920s crime comedy-drama films 1920s English-language films 1920s sports comedy-drama films American baseball films American black-and-white films American crime comedy-drama films American silent feature films American sports comedy-drama films English-language crime comedy-drama films English-language sports comedy-drama films Famous Players-Lasky films Films directed by Lewis Milestone Films set in Florida Paramount Pictures films Silent American comedy-drama films