Keep Smiling (1925 film)

Keep Smiling is a 1925 American silent comedy film directed by Albert Austin and Gilbert Pratt. It stars Monty Banks (real name Mario Bianchi) and Glen Cavender.[1][2] The film was originally titled "Water Shy".[3]

Keep Smiling
Directed byAlbert Austin
Gilbert Pratt
Written byMonty Banks
Clyde Bruckman
Herman C. Raymaker
Produced byMonty Banks
StarringMonty Banks
Robert Edeson
Anne Cornwall
CinematographyJames Diamond
Lee Garmes
Barney McGill
Edited byClaude Berkeley
Production
company
Monty Banks Productions
Distributed byAssociated Exhibitors
Ideal Films (UK)
Release date
  • September 6, 1925 (1925-09-06)
Running time
60 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

The story features a boy with a fear of water who invents a life preserver that inflates when it comes in contact with water. Promoting his invention, he becomes involved with a wild speedboat race, a crooked mechanic, and the darling daughter of a boating magnate.[1][4]

Plot

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As described in a film magazine reviews,[5] the Boy (Monty Banks), a yokel of the fishing village, has grown up in fear of the water because his father had been lost at sea. He has invented a lifesaving device which he wishes to submit to James P. Ryan, a wealthy shipping magnate. He has a letter of introduction to Ryan which gets mixed up with a letter introducing Bordanni, a famed motor boat racer who is to handle Ryan’s entry in the race classic the following day. The Boy is rushed into a party in full swing (after being supplied with clothes which all fit except for the shoes). Ryan’s daughter Rose (Anne Cornwall), whose life he has once saved, is overjoyed to find that her one-time rescuer is the famous Bordanni and expresses the hope that he will win the race. Of course, in spite of all setbacks, lack of knowledge, and adverse circumstances, he wins a most breath-taking and riotous race — houses, boats, bridges, docks, etc., were just like thin air to him. His boat is demolished, but he is saved because of his lifesaving device.

Cast

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Preservation

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A print of Keep Smiling was preserved in the Russian archive Gosfilmofond and presented to the Library of Congress in 2010.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Russia Presents Library of Congress With Digital Copies of Lost U.S. Silent Films". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  2. ^ James Roots (October 23, 2014). The 100 Greatest Silent Film Comedians. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 357–. ISBN 978-1-4422-3650-9.
  3. ^ "Changes in titles". Photoplay. June 1925. p. 134. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  4. ^ American Film Institute (1997). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States. University of California Press. pp. 401–. ISBN 978-0-520-20969-5.
  5. ^ "New Pictures: Keep Smiling", Exhibitors Herald, 22 (7), Chicago, Illinois: Exhibitors Herald Company: 63–64, August 8, 1925, retrieved July 16, 2022   This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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