PATHS TO PARADISE (Clarence Badger, USA, 1925, 8)
A bit of enjoyable nonsense about a couple of jewel thieves among the impossibly riche. Raymond Griffith and Betty Compson make an appealing couple of thieves, like Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins in TROUBLE IN PARADISE albeit without Raphaelson’s dialog (not a small thing) though Badger at least makes a decent nonunion American equivalent of Lubitsch. The best great sequence involves a “stay unseen” chase involving a spotlight that gets complicated by a dog.
Griffith’s persona is perfect for this role — he’s overdressed in his tuxedo and silk hat, but he’s not a fop or ineffectual, and sonewhat goodhearted. It’s the stuff of “sophisticated” comedy and I think the introducer compared him to a cross between John Cleese...