A successful carnival barker deals with the arrival of his eager son, who he'd hoped would stay far from the carnival world, his son's entanglement with a showgirl, and his own jealous mistress.
Acting
Milton Sills barks with Broadway-honed theatricality.
Production
Real Coney Island carnival locations, not sets.
Director
George Fitzmaurice
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during the chaotic 1928-29 transition to sound, this was Paramount's bid to prove talkies could handle 'prestige' material — notice how static the camera stays compared to late silents.
Douglas Fairbanks Sr. reportedly hated his son taking this role; the elder Fairbanks considered carnival pictures beneath the family name. The irony of Junior playing a son rejecting his father's world was not lost on reviewers.
US
