Thelma Todd: Fascinating Youth

Fascinating Youth

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Fascinating Youth
Directed by	Sam Wood
Produced by	Adolph Zukor Jesse L. Lasky
Written by	Byron Morgan (story) Paul Schofield (scenario)
Starring	Charles "Buddy" Rogers Thelma Todd
Cinematography	Leo Tover
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	March 17, 1926 (premiere) August 23, 1926 (nationwide)
Running time	70 minutes 7 reels (6,882 feet)
Country	United States
Language	Silent film English intertitles

Fascinating Youth (1926) is a silent film, directed by Sam Wood, featuring Thelma Todd and Josephine Dunn in supporting roles, and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Fascinating Youth is known to many silent film fans as the debut film of then-future Wings star, Charles "Buddy" Rogers. Many well-known personalities made guest appearances in this film, judging a beauty contest in one scene, and features Clara Bow in a cameo appearence, in this, her second film for Paramount Pictures.

Preservation status

The film is currently considered a lost film, but the trailer for Fascinating Youth exists.

Cast

Charles 'Buddy' Rogers ... Teddy Ward
Ivy Harris ... Jeanne King
Jack Luden ... Ross Page
Roland Drew ... Randy Furness (billed as Walter Goss)
Claude Buchanan ... Bobby Stearns
Mona Palma ... Dotty Sinclair
Thelma Todd ... Lorraine Lane
Josephine Dunn ... Loris Lane
Thelda Kenvin ... Betty Kent
Jeanne Morgan ... Mae Oliver
Dorothy Nourse ... Mary Arnold
Irving Hartley ... Johnnie
Gregory Blackton ... Frederick Maine
Robert Andrews ... Duke Slade
Charles Brokaw ... Gregory
Iris Gray ... Sally Lee
Ralph Lewis ... John Ward
Joseph Burke ... Ward's Secretary
James Bradbury Sr. ... The Professor
Harry Sweet ... The Sheriff
William Black ... Deputy Sheriff
Richard Dix ... Himself - Richard Dix
Adolphe Menjou ... Himself - Adolphe Menjou
Clara Bow ... Herself - Clara Bow
Lois Wilson ... Herself - Lois Wilson
Percy Marmont ... Himself - Percy Marmont
Chester Conklin ... Himself - Chester Conklin
Thomas Meighan ... Himself - Thomas Meighan
Lila Lee ... Herself - Lila Lee
Lewis Milestone ... Himself - Lewis Milestone
Malcolm St. Clair ... Himself

External links

NEW YORK TIMES Review Of FASCINATING YOUTH
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=990CE3DB1139E633A25753C1A9639C946795D6CF

The indefatigable energy of young blood courses obstreperously through "Fascinating Youth," the new pictorial offering at the Rivoli, in which the eight girls and the eight young men graduated from the Paramount School make their official screen début. This bit of waggery is prefaced by John Murray Anderson's stage contribution, "Alice in Movieland," wherein the new generation of players, known as the Paramount Junior Stars, appear in the flesh, introducing themselves in song. Mr. Anderson's scene of a studio, with its cameras, lighting effects and settings, is extraordinarily well designed.
In making "Fascinating Youth," Sam Wood, the director, had his troubles. It is trying to deal with one temperamental player who must receive so many close-ups, but it is far worse where a director has to cope with sixteen different temperaments and endeavor to give them all one-sixteenth of a chance in the film. Taking it all in all, Mr. Wood has done a very good job with this production, which is based on a story by Byron Morgan. This vehicle may not be possessed of an overabundance of dramatic value, but it is pleasingly-entertaining and often quite funny. The introduction of the Charleston has, unfortunately, not been overlooked, and during one of the episodes one suspects that the director was a little bewildered. There are some ideas which he obviously intended to include, which in the end slipped his mind.
The rôles of the heroine and the hero are filled by Ivy Harris and Charles Rogers. Miss Harris possesses an undeniable charm, being facially a sort of composite of Pauline Stark, Gloria Swanson and Aileen Pringle. She has succeeded in giving quite a fair performance. Mr. Rogers is an acceptable hero, but frequently he seems to be far away from the story, thinking about the photographer, his own future and the surrounding scenery, rather than the thoughts that invariably run through a sure-fire, confident movie hero's quick brain.
Most of the amusement is furnished by a gouty old professor, who relies on a wheel chair to keep up with the juveniles. Unlike most men suffering from such a complaint, he is good natured and has an admiring eye for a pretty face, which on one occasion caused one severe looking elderly woman to call him an old fool. He retaliates in the modern vernacular, saying, with a sweet smile:
"So's your old man."
This professor, admirably played by James Bradbury Sr., is amused when one of the galaxy of girls tells him that he will get shell shock if he eats so many peanuts.* The venerable gentleman joins in the fun and stays at the hotel when the older contingent pour out. So the hero, the son of the inevitable rich man, wins from his father, when buoyant youth and enthusiasm turn the losing hotel proposition into what we may take for the proverbial gold mine.
Here you have Montreal toboggan scenes joined in with those taken on the Shrewsbury River. There are skiing "shots" which would have tested any hero's courage, and ice boat races in which a frightfully wicked trick is done by the Paramount Junior Stars' first villain.
Other Photoplays.
The feature at the Capitol is "Money Talks," with Claire Windsor and Owen Moore.
A revival of "Outside the Law," with Lon Chaney, is at the Colony.
"The Little Irish Girl," with Dolores Costello, is at Warners'.
International Film Arts Guild repertoire at the Cameo; today and tomorrow, "Beau Brummell," with John Barrymore; Wednesday and Thursday, "One Arabian Night"; Friday and Saturday, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," with John Barrymore.
Harold Lloyd's comedy "For Heaven's Sake" has been held over at the Rialto.
"Bachelor Brides," with Rod La Rocque, is at the Broadway.
"Ben-Hur" is at the George M. Cohan, "La Bohéme" is at the Embassy, "The Big Parade," at the Astor, "The Volga Boatman" at the Times Square and "The Greater Glory" at the Brooklyn Strand.
The Students' First Film.FASCINATING YOUTH, with Charles Rogers, Ivy Harris, Jack Luden, Robert Ward, Claude Buchanan, Mona Palma, Thelma Todd, Josephine Dunn, Theida Kenvin, Dorothy Nourse, Irving Hartley, Greg Blackton, Robert Andrews, Charles Brokaw, Iris Gray, Ralph Lewis, Joseph Burke, James Bradbury Sr., Harry Sweet and William Black, written by Byron Morgan, directed by Sam Wood; "Thoughts for Mother's Day"; John Murray Anderson's "Alice in Movieland." At the Rivoli.

*"Shell shock" was in the news in the period between the two World Wars: it referred to men whose minds had been affected by combat to the point that they were unable to function normally afterwords. In the second World War, this condition would be called "combat fatigue".