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King of the Rodeo (1928)
He's a Hoot
While it may be true that not as many American boys daydream of taking their relay horses to the big rodeo as in 1929, "King of the Rodeo" is too much fun to simply be dismissed as archaic entertainment of a bygone era. As a 1929 silent, it was definitely an endangered species and star Hoot Gibson would make the move to talking pictures before the year was out.
Gibson isn't going to distract you from the story with his looks, and this is a good thing. Gibson's portrayal of the Montana Kid is wholly authentic from the first frame, perhaps because of his real life cowboy skills. But the writers do a good job of mining humor from Gibson's stoic mannerisms while avoiding making him into a self-satiric figure. A reluctantly-given tour of the rodeo grounds by Gibson for a maybe- future sweetheart is a wonderfully simplistic yet witty scene that relies on the inter titles for the laughs, but just wouldn't work as well in a talking picture.
All the stock characters are there: the wacky sidekicks for comic relief, the playing-hard-to-get love interest, the disapproving father who thinks it's time for Hoot to give up rodeos and go to college (even if Hoot is clearly in his late 30's). But the film doesn't play as one long cliché because it never takes itself very seriously. There is even an early scene where Hoot finds himself on horseback at a gas station where the the film isn't afraid to poke fun at the anachronism of a horseman in a rapidly motorizing world. A good topic of debate would be how much of the humor in the last reel is intentional and how much plays unintentionally funnier today--no matter where you come down though, you will be amused.
If you're a Chicagoan or have any interest in the history of Soldier Field, you're going to see quite a lot of it in King of the Rodeo. From comic bits to actual rodeo footage, a good chunk of the film was made on location along the shore of Lake Michigan in the summer of 1928.
I'm unaware of any format of video release for this one, so chances of seeing it are probably limited to generous collectors, festivals or the odd revival house.
Dance Hall (1929)
A Predictable, Technically Substandard "Dance Hall"
I can't bring an expert historian's perspective on 1929's "Dance Hall", but I can speculate some. It must have been among the first batch of talkies produced by RKO, but clearly doesn't have the production values of a "Rio Rita".
In fact, the TCM print demonstrates clear issues with sound and picture sync. It doesn't seem to me that this was ever intended as a silent, nevertheless the entire soundtrack seems to have been dubbed in by the actors after the fact. One could speculate whether this was done because of technical failures or limitations at the time of filming or for budgetary reasons, but it creates a jarring effect that will turn some viewers off immediately. It does seem though, that this could be corrected through restoration work, but who's going to put up the money for something like that?
As for the film itself, it's a fairly paint-by-numbers love triangle set in the world of the dance hall. Arthur Lake seems born to play these naive lovelorn 20-something roles, and while we're supposed to identify with and root for him, it's hard not to also want to slap him upside the head a few times as well, viewing the film through 2013 eyes.
Visually, the film is somewhat ahead of many other 1929 productions in that it keeps its characters moving and mostly avoids the interminable stagy scenes and long pauses characteristic of the period.
It is painfully obvious where the film is going at any given moment, and anyone who's seen just a few movies of this age won't have too much trouble predicting the next scene at any given time. It also has that hallmark of the era, the oddly placed comic relief character, who in this case shows up for his biggest laugh during arguably the dramatic crescendo of the film.
All in all, a middling melodrama that is somewhat more visually interesting than many of its 1929 cohorts, plagued by issues with the sound technology used, which will turn off many but be tolerated by others.