Customer Reviews

Show Off [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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It's hard not to give a movie with Louise Brooks 5 stars, but this just isn't her best vehicle. In fact she only has a supporting role. But anything with Louise's smile is worth watching. If you don't own Pandoria's Box get it first, this is masterpiece. Other Louise Brooks are hard to find but can be worth the effort. Beggar's of Life is a point in example. Nut if you have Pandor's Box get this, it's worth it.

Director Malcolm St. Clair's adaptation of the George Kelly stageplay THE SHOW-OFF is actually a Ford Sterling vehicle, despite cover art depicting Louise Brooks, who here portrays the girlfriend of a secondary character.

Sterling is best known as Chief of Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops. In this story he's the bragadocious J. Aubrey Piper, a carnation-wearing railroad clerk claiming to be a wealthy company big shot. Aubrey proposes to Amy Fisher (Wilson), which displeases her parents who are little-impressed with him, as they've been told the truth about their future son-in-law's lowly position and net worth. The two marry anyway, and spendthrift Aubrey is unable to support his bride on a clerk's pay.

After he wins a car in a raffle, Aubrey (who doesn't know how to operate it) causes several accidents by driving on the wrong side of the road. In the process of crashing the auto, Aubrey pins a traffic cop against a wall. In court he's unable to pay a $1,000 fine, so his brother Joe (Kelly) helps out, which causes a whole new set of problems.


In 1946, Red Skelton starred in one of the many remakes of THE SHOW OFF (1946). (VHS only)

This silent Sterling/Brooks version is also available from IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT as a comedy double feature, along with THE PLASTIC AGE (1925), featuring "It" Girl Clara Bow in a minor role. (DVD only)


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(6.9) The Show Off (1926) - Ford Sterling/Lois Wilson/Louise Brooks/Gregory Kelly/Claire McDowell/Charles Goodrich/Joseph W. Smiley

This listing is NOT a Louise Brooks movie. I've added the Correct Artwork as Well.

This Video is in fact a kids humorous instructional tape on how to do gags and party tricks. It is from 1986, so the hair and wardrobe alone makes this tape comic gold. It is hosted by a young Malcom Jamal Warner (Cosby Show) and Features the likes or Fred Newman, Madman Magician Friedhoffer (who uses this strange Hasidic Jewish accent that doesn't fit his character at all) and comedian Frankie Pace. Learn how to do the Hawaiian nose hum and beatbox at the same time! Learn how to levitate, and how to juggle.

Well worth watching for the over-acting, atrociously dated computer graphics and stage props, the acid wash jeans, and the obnoxiously catchy synth theme

5 Stars!

This is another good film to add to your LuLu collection. This is a screen adaptation of a play "The Show 0ff - A transcript of life in three acts" by George Kelly in 1923. The title tells it all. A show off Aubrey Piper, (Ford Sterling) through misleads, misdeeds a family into ruin.

Louise Brooks plays Clara, Joe's Girl.

This 82-minuet film is backed up with a violin and piano score, directed and compiled by Timothy Brock. Timothy Brock is a composer of concert hall and film music, and the conductor/music director of the Olympia Chamber Orchestra in Olympia, Washington, USA.