Kid Boots
About Kid Boots
After a football party, Tom Sterling is tricked into marrying chorus girl Carmen Mendoza. While the divorce is still open he inherits a fortune, and Carmen wants her share. He pulls tailor's helper Kid Boots out of a fight with an angry customer and keeps him close as a witness. At a golf resort Tom hides out as a pro and Boots becomes caddy master. Boots falls for swimming teacher Clara McCoy, then loses her when he flirts with Carmen to help the case. Big Boyle, who wants Clara, puts Boots through a beating, a massage, and an electric-chair gag, and laughs himself into the chair. Boots oversleeps the hearing. Clara helps him. Horses, mules, cars, and a plane get them there. He parachutes onto the courthouse roof in time to testify.
Cast & crew
More about Kid Boots
Frank Tuttle directed. The script comes from the 1923 musical by William Anthony McGuire and Otto Harbach. Luther Reed is the credited adapter. Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky produced. Victor Milner photographed. Paramount released it on October 4, 1926, in nine reels. Eddie Cantor plays Kid Boots, Clara Bow plays Clara McCoy, Billie Dove plays Eleanor Belmore, and Lawrence Gray plays Tom Sterling. It is Cantor's first film.
Themes
Making
Tuttle puts Cantor's stage character into a silent feature and builds the last reel as a stunt chase across horses and aircraft.
Look
Victor Milner shot the golf resort and the chase, including the parachute landing on the court roof.
Preservation
A print is preserved at the Library of Congress.
Notes
- Natalie Kingston plays Carmen Mendoza. Malcolm Waite is among the resort heavies.
- A working draft called Clara Jane Martin and Eleanor Polly Pendleton.
- The inheritance in the AFI synopsis is $3 million. One scene description puts a $100,000 settlement at stake.
- The Library of Congress holds a print.
- The finish is a parachute onto the courthouse, not a car pulling up at the door.
- American Cinematographer ran a piece on the production in August 1926.
Scenes
- Boots is pulled out of a customer's fight and hired as Tom's witness.
- Big Boyle laughs himself into his own electric chair.
- Boots drops by parachute onto the courthouse roof.
Influenced by
- The 1923 musical Kid Boots by William Anthony McGuire and Otto Harbach
