SHORE LEAVE
starring Richard Barthelmess
MOTION PICTURE CLASSIC
September, 1925
"Shore Leave" (First National) is the last production to come of the combination of Richard Barthelmess as star and John Robertson as director. These two men have now gone their separate ways.
In the footlight version, played by Frances Starr, the story was simply that of a drab New England dressmaker, bordering on spinsterhood, who fell in love with a careless, forgetful sailor. Eventually he wandered back. That was all.
The film version has made "Shore Leave" into a highly diverting study of a brash, happy-go-lucky gob. He meets the little dressmaker, who loses her heart, and eventually he drifts back to her, but the camera follows him thru his merry travels on board one of Uncle Sam's battleships.
Barthelmess' playing of "Bilge" Smith will surprise you, being altogether different than anything he has ever given the screen. It is a performance that would make a star out of any player. Here is a brand new characterization to add to the Barthelmess' gallery, worthy in its way to go with his idealistic Yellow Man of "Broken Blossoms" and his mountain boy of "Tol'able David." Incidentally, it will make the critics who have said that he is no comedian eat their own words.
Video source: Grapevine