Kid Boots

... this is a 1926 silent starring Eddie Cantor in the title role and costarring Clara Bow. This film is a great treat because we get to see how the musical comedy "Kid Boots" was turned into an effective silent film. Kid Boots works in a tailor's shop and is about to get a beating from the beau of Clara McCoy (Clara Bow) when he is saved from harm by Tom Sterling (Lawrence Gray). Likewise, when Tom's soon-to-be ex-wife tries to prove that they have been reunited so she can annul their divorce decree and get in on Tom's recent large inheritance, Kid Boots comes to the rescue and claims the two have not been alone together. I know this sounds strange, but chalk it up to divorce law in the early 20th century. Tom then runs off with Kid Boots - his witness - to a mountain resort until the time for his final divorce decree to become final has come and gone to evade his ex-wife's trickery.

At the resort Tom meets a girl that he falls for, and Kid Boots runs into Clara McCoy again, still accompanied by her brutish boyfriend. Clara prefers Kid Boots because she "prefers reliable men to good-looking ones" a title card tells us. At the resort Tom's ex-wife and her lawyers soon follow, along with all of the comic routines and mix-ups that you're accustomed to seeing in Cantor's sound films, if you've been fortunate enough to view those rarely seen comic gems. The film is quite good and it didn't surprise me that it was a Paramount silent that someone else had restored and presented.