The Best People

{{short description|1925 film by Sidney Olcott}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}} {{infobox film | name = The Best People | image = The Best People (1925) - 1.jpg | caption = Advertisement | director = Sidney Olcott | producer = Jesse L. Lasky<br>Adolph Zukor | writer = Bernard McConville | based_on = {{based on |''The Best People''|David Gray and Avery Hopwood}} | starring = Warner Baxter | cinematography = James Wong Howe | studio = Famous Players–Lasky | distributor = Paramount Pictures | released = {{film date|1925|12|28}} | runtime = 6 reels | country = United States | language = Silent (English intertitles) | budget = | gross = }}

'''''The Best People''''' is a 1925 American silent comedy film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed by Paramount. It was directed by Sidney Olcott with Warner Baxter in the leading role.<ref>[http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/B/BestPeople1925.html Progressive Silent Film List: ''The Best People''] at silentera.com</ref><ref>[http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=2816 The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: ''The Best People'']</ref>

The film was remade in 1930 as ''Fast and Loose'' starring Miriam Hopkins.

==Plot== As described in a review in a film magazine,<ref name="MPW">{{cite journal |last=Sargent |first=E. W. |author-link= |title=Through the Box Office Window: ''The Best People''; Hopwood's Stage Play Under Sidney OlcottV Direction Becomes an Amusing Farce Comedy |journal=The Moving Picture World |volume=77 |issue=1 |pages=59 |publisher=Chalmers Publishing Co. |location=New York City |date=7 November 1925 |url=https://archive.org/details/movpicwor77movi/page/n56/mode/1up |access-date=22 September 2021}}</ref> Mrs. Lenox is marrying her daughter Miriam to the scion of another "best family," but the girl prefers their chauffeur, who has red blood instead of blue. Bertie Lenox has fallen in love with an impossible chorus girl who will not marry him until he gives up his money and goes to work. Arthur Rockmere, the fiancé, has arranged a supper with Alice O'Neill, the chorus girl, and her chum, Millie Montgomery, also of the chorus, with the idea of buying Alice off. Bertie resents this private-room affair.

There is a sidewalk fight outside the supper club that lands most of them in the police station, where Millie bails them out with the money Bertie's father has given her to enlist her aid in breaking off the distasteful match, and they all roll home in a taxi the next morning. The children get their hearts' delights, and Millie lands Bertie's Uncle Throckmorton, a self-constituted social arbiter, who richly deserves his fate — and seems to enjoy it.

==Cast== {{Cast listing| *Warner Baxter as Henry Morgan *Esther Ralston as Alice O'Neil *Kathlyn Williams as Mrs Lenox *William Austin as Arthur Rockmere *Larry Steers as Uncle Throckmorton *Margaret Livingston as Milly Montgomery *Joseph Striker as Bertie Lenox *Margaret Morris as Miriam Lenox *Ernie Adams as Taxi Driver *Florence Roberts }}

==Preservation== With no prints of ''The Best People'' located in any film archives,<ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.3699/default.html The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''The Best People'']</ref> it is a lost film<ref>[http://www.silentsaregolden.com/arneparamountpictures.html ''The Best People'' at Lost Film Files: ''Paramount Pictures - 1925'']</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category|The Best People}} *{{IMDb title|0015618}} *{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.sidneyolcott.com/Best_People.htm ''The Best People''] website dedicated to Sidney Olcott

{{DEFAULTSORT:Best People, The (1925)}} Category:1925 films Category:1925 lost films Category:1925 romantic comedy films Category:1925 American films Category:1925 English-language films Category:American black-and-white films Category:American silent feature films Category:English-language romantic comedy films Category:Famous Players–Lasky films Category:Films directed by Sidney Olcott Category:Films with screenplays by Bernard McConville Category:Lost American silent romantic comedy films Category:Paramount Pictures films