On Thin Ice (1925 film)
{{short description|1925 film}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox film
| name = On Thin Ice
| image = 1925 - Nedson Theater Allentown PA.jpg
| caption = Pennsylvania theater showing the film in 1925
| director = Malcolm St. Clair
| producer = Warner Brothers
| writer = Darryl Francis Zanuck
| based_on = {{basedon|The Dear Pretender|Alice Ross Colver}}
| starring = Tom Moore
Edith Roberts
William Russell
| music =
| cinematography = Byron Haskin
| editing = Clarence Kolster
| distributor = Warner Bros.
| released = {{Film date|1925|01|30}}
| runtime = 7 reels
| country = United States
| language = Silent (English intertitles)
}}
On Thin Ice is a 1925 American silent crime drama film directed by Mal St. Clair and starring Tom Moore, Edith Roberts, and William Russell. It was produced and distributed by the Warner Bros. and based upon a 1924 novel by Alice Ross Colver.[http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/O/OnThinIce1925.html Progressive Silent Film List: On Thin Ice] at silentera.com[http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=11111 The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: On Thin Ice]Dwyer, 1996 p. 201: Filmography, from Allice Ross Colver’s novel The Dear Pretender.
Plot
As described in a film magazine review,{{Citation |title=New Pictures: On Thin Ice |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=50 |date=28 March 1925 |url=https://archive.org/details/exhibitorsherald21unse/page/n57/mode/1up |access-date=26 December 2021}} {{Source-attribution}} Rose (Roberts), desperately in need of money, finds a bag of money thrown over a fence by crooks. She rushes home with it only to find her father has died. She attempts to return the satchel but it is filled with paper and worthless money. The crooks become friendly with her, and although harassed by the police, she finally wins over one of them into going straight.Dwyer, 1996 p. 201: Filmography: Detailed plot sketch.
Cast
{{Cast listing|
- Tom Moore as Charles White
- Edith Roberts as Rose Lore
- William Russell as Dapper Crawford
- Theodore von Eltz as Dr. Paul Jackson
- Wilfrid North as Harrison Breen
- Gertrude Robinson as Forger
- Texas Kid as Gangster
- Jimmy Quinn as Gangter
}}
Reception
Film historian Ruth Anne Dywer, quoting Leonard Mosley from his biography on Darryl Zanuck, reports that producer Jack Warner was not particularly impressed with St. Clair’s directing, despite the fact that his Warner Bros. films had performed well at the box office.Dwyer, 1996 p. 94: Mosley’s Daryll Zanuck: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Last Tycoon (1984). See footnote no. 5, p. 95 in Dwyer.
New York Times film critic Mordaunt Hall characterized On Thin Ice as a “trite” and “clumsy story” in which “an effort has been made to maintain the mystery concerning the thief.” Hall concludes that director Mal St. Clair failed to endow the film “with any original or bright touches.”Hall, 1925
Though Photoplay ranked On Thin Ice among the best of the month, the studio canceled St. Clair’s contract following the release of the film.Dwyer, 1996 p. 94: Dwyer quoting George Geltzer in Films in Review, 1954, “Malcolm St. Clair”
Preservation
With no prints of On Thin Ice located in any film archives,[http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.7980/default.html The Library of Congress / FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: On Thin Ice] it is a lost film.[http://www.silentsaregolden.com/arnewarner.html On Thin Ice at Lost Film Files: Lost Warner Brothers film - 1925]
The picture survives only in screenplay form at the Library of the University of Southern California. Ruth Anne Dwyer notes that the motto “Those who skate on THIN ICE always fall through” was likely carried on the introductory title of the film itself.Dwyer, 1996 p. 93: Capitalized in Dwyer
Notes
{{Reflist}}
References
- Dwyer, Ruth Anne. 1996. Malcolm St. Clair: His Films, 1915-1948. The Scarecrow Press, Lantham, Md., and London. {{ISBN | 0-8108-2709-3}}
- Hall, Mordaunt. 1925. The Screen. The New York Times, March 9, 1925. https://www.nytimes.com/1925/03/09/archives/the-screen.html Retrieved 10 June 2024.
External links
- {{IMDb title|id=0016177|title=On Thin Ice}}
{{Malcolm St. Clair}}
Category:1925 crime drama films
Category:1920s English-language films
Category:American black-and-white films
Category:American silent feature films
Category:English-language crime drama films
Category:Films directed by Malcolm St. Clair
Category:Lost American crime drama films