The Matinee Idol

The Matinee Idol is a 1928 silent romantic comedy film directed by Frank Capra, and starring Bessie Love and Johnnie Walker. A Broadway star falls in love with a woman who does not know his real identity. The film was considered to be lost, but was found in the archives of the Cinémathèque Française and restored. Don Wilson, a famous blackface comedian, is preparing to headline a new show. Arnold Wingate, his manager, persuades him to take a weekend off in the country. When their car breaks down, they go off in search of a mechanic. Don happens upon a ramshackle traveling... theatrical stock company run by Jasper Bolivar and his daughter Ginger. One of the actors has quit, so Ginger is holding an audition. When Don asks the hopefuls in line about a garage, Ginger mistakes him for one of the applicants and chooses him as the best of a bad lot. Amused , he accepts the job, giving his name as "Harry Mann". Playing a dying Union soldier, Don has one line and gets kissed by Ginger's character. The show, an American Civil War melodrama, is terribly amateurish, but the audience does not know any better and applauds appreciatively.
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