How to Handle Women is a 1928 American silent comedy film directed by William James Craft and starring Glenn Tryon. His first Hollywood film, Bela Lugosi had a brief uncredited role as a diplomatic aide, and Krazy Kat cartoonist George Herriman played himself in a cameo appearance. It also featured Bull Montana, and Cesare Gravina.[1] It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures.[2][3] The film had several working titles: Fresh Every Hour, The Prince of Peanuts, Meet the Prince, The Prince of Knuts and Three Days.

How to Handle Women
Lobby card
Directed byWilliam James Craft
Written by
Story byWilliam James Craft
Jack Foley
Produced byCarl Laemmle
Starring
CinematographyArthur L. Todd
Edited byCharles Craft
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • October 14, 1928 (1928-10-14)
Running time
60 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

Plot

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Leonard Higgins (Glenn Tryon), a young up-and-coming New York cartoonist, meets Prince Hendryx (Raymond Keane), the ruler of Vulgaria who is visiting the United States trying to persuade some wealthy businessmen to invest in his tiny country. Higgins decides to help the Prince by using his cartooning skills to advertise Vulgaria's peanut crop, which in reality does not exist. Higgins invites a number of wealthy people to a fancy banquet at the Vulgarian Embassy. The gimmick is that each course of the dinner is to be made entirely from peanuts, including the soup, steaks, desserts, etc. and all of them taste horrible. Meanwhile, the evil Count Olaff (Mario Carillo) shows up to sabotage the dinner, so that he can depose Prince Hendryx and become the ruler of Vulgaria. Higgins inpersonates the Prince and hosts the banquet himself. As a bonus, Higgins winds up winning the affections of the lovely Beatrice Fairbanks (Marian Nixon) in the end.

Cast

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Preservation

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The Library of Congress has a "digital file containing a 300-foot 16mm fragment from one reel (reel one) loaned by a collector".[4]

References

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  1. ^ Paul Tumey (November 28, 2016). "A "Konversation" with George Herriman's Biographer, Michael Tisserand (Part Two)".
  2. ^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: How to Handle Women
  3. ^ Progressive Silent Film List: How to Handle Women Archived July 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine at silentera.com
  4. ^ "How To Handle Women / William J Craft [motion picture]". Performing Arts Encyclopedia, Library of Congress.
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