OMAR THE TENTMAKER (1922)

bobfells · Post by **bobfells** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:23 pm

The thread on THE MASQUERADER reminded of Guy Bates Post's other film, OMAR THE TENTMAKER. To paraphrase Smuckers jelly, with a name like that it has to be good. I haven't seen any reviews but the cast is top notch and includes Patsy Ruth Miller, Rose Dione, Nigel deBrulier, Noah Berry, Boris Karloff and Walter Long. Rather long on villains. I recall seeing a couple of tantalizing stills in Daniel Blum's Pictorial History of the Silent Screen. Any info is appreciated!

Penfold · Post by **Penfold** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:56 am

Well, according to CA Lejeune, Oct 6th 1923, in The Guardian, the Smuckers Jelly rule was wrong.....it's a long piece decrying the attempts of stage actors generally thinking the same rules apply onscreen, so I'll leave you these nuggets......
[Guy Bates Post in Omar The Tentmaker] ...a newcomer who doesn't know his job at all .......registers nothing but unrest......still an apprentice, his work is raw and crude......
On the other hand, she was quite taken with Jackie Coogan in 'Trouble'...."A Film Actor who knows his job to the core......the right gestures and the right expressions are an instinctive choice"....who she then uses as a stick to beat GBP with.....

Henry Nicolella · Post by **Henry Nicolella** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 6:38 am

Guy Bates Post was scheduled to play Svengali in the 1923 TRILBY (which, like OMAR and MASQUERADER was a Richard Walton Tully production) but was replaced by Arthur Edmund Carew.
Henry Nicolella

Jack Theakston · Post by **Jack Theakston** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:03 pm

From Harrison's Reports, December 16, 1922—

"Omar, the Tentmaker"—Guy Bates Post

An artistically produced screen version of Richard Walton Tully's drama of the Persian poet an philosopher. Technically, the picture is perfect: the direction and acting are satisfactory, and the faithfulness to the time in which the action is supposed to occur shows no anachronisms or incongruities the average audience, the vast majority of whom know little of Persia, will be conscious of. There is considerable heart interest in the picture, but it is inclined to drag a little at times. In its present state, it is too long:—

Omar, the hero, loses to the harem of the all-powerful Shah his bride of a few hours. Months later, the unhappy girl gives birth to a female child; she sends the infant to Omar to rear. During the ensuing seventeen years, the heroine, who had been ordered killed by the Shah, but who in reality had been sold into slavery, is unable to escape and to return to her loved ones. At the conclusion, the lovers are reunited.

To the intellectual classes, those who are more or less familiar with the work upon which this picture has been built, "Omar, the Tentmaker" will probably appeal, as it will also to theatre-goers in the metropolitan sections—these will be interested to see on the screen one of the artists of the stage; but the picture's appeal to all others is debatable.—First National, Dec. 11; 8,495 ft.; 98 to 121 min.

bobfells · Post by **bobfells** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:31 pm

Thanks for the info. Interesting that director James Young let Arliss direct his own screen test so Arliss could see how stage technique was too much for the movie screen. The criticism of Post's overacting suggests that perhaps he never watched himself on film as Arliss did. This wouldn't be too surprising - Helen Hayes admitted years later that she never watched her MGM films until they were shown on television decades later.

Rodney · Post by **Rodney** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 2:44 pm

bobfells wrote:Thanks for the info. Interesting that director James Young let Arliss direct his own screen test so Arliss could see how stage technique was too much for the movie screen. The criticism of Post's overacting suggests that perhaps he never watched himself on film as Arliss did. This wouldn't be too surprising - Helen Hayes admitted years later that she never watched her MGM films until they were shown on television decades later.

One of the items in the Al Layton collection of theater music is a very long piece called Omar the Tentmaker. Don't know if the story was ever a ballet, but if it was, that was the music...

Jack Theakston · Post by **Jack Theakston** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 3:10 pm

The piece by Anita Baldwin, to which I think you refer, Rodney, is actually a suite of incidental music for the play that the movie was based on by Richard Walton Tully (her husband—she financed the play when her father died and left her a large sum of money).

Tully was also the producer of the filmed version of OMAR and the aforementioned MASQUERADER, but he is most famous for his play, "The Bird of Paradise" which was the subject of a long, drawn-out plagiarism suit, but of course was later the basis for the 1931 film with Dolores Del Rio.