Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood

18. Chimmie Fadden Out West

18 Chimmi~ Fadd~n Out W~st Produced by the Jesse L, Lasky Feature Play Company for Paramount release, Director: Cecil B, DeMille, Original story and scenario by Cecil B, DeMille and Jeanie Macpherson, founded on the stories by E.W, Townsend, Art director: Wilfred Buckland, Photography: Alvin Wyckoff Picture started: September 27, I9 I5, Picture completed: October I8, 19 I5, Length: 5,21 I feet (six reels), Cost: $16,069,67, Released: November 22, 1915, Gross: $72,036,24 Cast: Victor Moore (Chimmie Fadden), Camille Astor ("The Duchess"), Ernest Joy (Van Courtlandt), Mrs, Lewis McCord (Mother Fadden), Raymond Hatton (Larry Fadden, Chimmie's brother), Tom Forman (Antoine), Florence Dagmar (Betty Van Courtlandt), Harry Hadfield (Preston), and Henry Bergman (hotel clerk) Chimmie Fadden had a better box-office reception than any of DeMille's films in the first half of 1915, so the decision was made to produce a second film featuring Victor Moore as the lovable, streetwise oaf. Chimmie Fadden Out West, an amusing, unpretentious picture, shows a flair for farce comedy that, except for Eddie Quillan's sequences in The Godless Girl (1928), DeMille would never exercise again. Critical reception of the picture was excellent, and a third MoorelFadden picture was scheduled to go into production. However, Jesse Lasky got cold feet when he saw Chimmie Fadden Out West at Tally's Theater in Los Angeles. He wrote DeMille that "In spite of our decision to do another picture with "Chirnmie" as the central character, after watching the picture at Tally's [Broadway Theater] last night, and talking with [Thomas] Tally and others, I have come to the conclusion that the 'Chimmie Fadden' type ofpicture will never do business , and therefore, I think it might be well to try an entirely different type of subject for Moore."! Lasky'sjudgment in the matter was less than perceptive. Chimmie Fadden Out West performed nearly as well as Chimmie Fadden; Moore's next two Lasky productions, The Race (directed by George Melford) and The Clown (directed by William C. 66 Chimmie Fadden Out West / 67 deMille), marked the end of the comedian's Hollywood career-at least until the1930s. Moore made a series of one-reel shorts for Klever Comedies in Florida in 1916 and 1917 that were released on the Paramount program, and he appeared in a minor role in The Man Who Found Himself (Famous Players-LaskylParamount, 1925), but, until sound came to the movies, he found his greatest success on the stage. The scenario that Cecil B. DeMille and Jeanie Macpherson wrote for Chimmie Fadden Out West could just as easily have played as a drama. Chimmie is hired by a railroad to stage a pUblicity stunt. He will go west, pretend to find gold, and then hire the fastest train east-which will bring attention to the rail line. Chimmie agrees to the proposition in order to gather "enough coin to get spliced" to his girlfriend, "The Duchess"maid to the rail tycoon's family. The scheme works like a charm, but the rail king gets greedy and sells phony stock in Chimmie's imaginary mine. The humor in Chimmie Fadden Out West rises from Victor Moore's characterization. At a time when Charlie Chaplin was still working in rough knockabout shorts for the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, and the only feature-length comedy of any consequence was Mack Sennett's six-reel slapstick extravaganza Tillie's Punctured Romance (Keystone-Ako, 1914), Cecil B. DeMille was creating the type of emotionally believable, character-centered comedy that would be hailed as a stunning screen achievement when Chaplin made The Kid (ChaplinUnited Artists, 1921) and Harold Lloyd released Grandma's Boy (Hal Roach-Pathe, 1922). ForCecilB. DeMille, however, the huge returns generatedby Carmen, The Cheat, and Temptation later in 1915 made the better-than-average success of Chimmie Fadden Out West look like small potatoes by comparison . The Lasky Company recognized that DeMille's efforts were better expended on melodrama than comedy-at least for the foreseeable future. ...