THE BARKER
Starring Milton Sills, Betty Compson and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
PHOTOPLAY
September 1928
If they would give us more pictures like this, the silent drama would not have to fear the competition of the "talkies." However, "The Barker" is now having some incidental sound applied. You will hear Milton Sills' ballyhoo and persuasive call of the midway.
"The Barker" has a simple story which encompasses all of the elemental emotions in the everyday struggles of a colorful, intensely human group of carnival troupers.
Nifty Miller is a barker who crowds 'em in to see his sweetheart-hula dancer. His passion for her is second only to his love for his boy. When that lad jumps his law studies to troupe with his father, her jealousy starts a miniature revolution among the seasoned old-timers. The complications which result blend pathos and humor in a masterful manner.
You will see as perfect a set of troupes as any circus every boasted. Milton Sills as the barker; Betty Compson as his temperamental sweetheart; Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., as the son and Dorothy Mackaill as the boy's sweetheart fit heir parts as naturally as though they had been carnival followers for years. There is no choice for a "best performance."
Director George Fitzmaurice was called to New York to talk "new contract" when First National powers-that-be saw the picture. No wonder! He has created a picture of human-life rather than circus-life.
You cannot afford to miss the humanness and the humor of this production.