Easy Pickings

{{short description|1927 film}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Easy Pickings

| image = File:Easy Pickings.jpg

| caption =

| director = George Archainbaud

| producer = First National Pictures
Frank Griffin

| writer = Louis Stevens

| based_on = play by Paul A. Cruger and William A. Burton

| starring = Anna Q. Nilsson
Kenneth Harlan

| music =

| cinematography = Charles Van Enger

| editing =

| distributor = First National Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1927|02|20}}

| runtime = 6 reels

}}

Easy Pickings is a 1927 silent film mystery or 'old dark house' story directed by George Archainbaud and starring Anna Q. Nilsson and Kenneth Harlan. It is based on a play written by Paul A. Cruger and William A. Burton.[http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=8816 The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Easy Pickings] Zack Williams plays the stereotypical Negro servant who mugs his way through the film in an exaggeratedly nervous manner. Comedic actor Billy Bevan plays the detective in the film in a more-serious-than-usual manner, and later went on to appear in Dracula's Daughter (1936) and The Invisible Man Returns (1940).{{cite book|last=Workman|first=Christopher|last2=Howarth|first2=Troy|year=2016|title=Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era|publisher=Midnight Marquee Press|page=312|ISBN=978-1936168-68-2}}

Lead actress Nilsson emigrated from Sweden to Hollywood to appear in a number of silent films, but her career could not survive the coming of sound films. Cameraman Van Enger had photographed the 1925 Lon Chaney classic The Phantom of the Opera, and years later would handle the camerawork on Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). Director Archainbaud wound up directing TV shows in the 1950s such as The Gene Autry Show and Lassie.