ARABIAN KNIGHTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 148, 13 September 1927, Page 17

ARABIAN KNIGHTS

A MILLION-DOLLAR FILM “Two Arabian Knights,” a milliondollar film production featuring the comic episodes of two American doughboys in Europe and the Orient during and after the war, has Just been completed at the United Artists studio. In the title roltis are William Boyd, star of "The Volga Boatman," and Louis Wolheim, the “tlairy Ape” and original Captain Flagg of stage fame. Bovd and Wolheim are presented as a team of rollicking comedians in the United Artists feature, fighting, cussing and laughing their way through an amazing series of humorous entanglements. It is Boyd's first comic role. Beautiful Mary Astor, for the first time in her screen career, will be seen in a sophisticated role, being cast as the oriental heroine supporting Boyd in the lavish production. The film was produced by Caddo Productions, a new United Artists unit headed by Howard Hughes, youthful oil millionaire. It is the first time that a new movie company has expended so much money on a maiden production. Lewis Milestone, a young director already famed for his comedy-drama successes, handled the megaphone on “Two Arabian Knights,” and the picture was filmed under supervision of John W. Considine, jnr. “Two Arabian Knights” differs from the current war films by ignoring the grim side of the conflict and dramatising only the human and humorous angles. It has been produced on a lavish scale, in a brilliant European and Oriental background. Richard Arlen, young leading man, broke into pictures by his ability to swim under water. He had his great opportunity in films by going to the other extreme, when Paramount made him leading man in “Wings” in which he is an aviator, flying thousands of feet above the earth. Harold Lloyd’s pictures have been doubling the box office grosses for over two years. His “For Heaven’s Sake,” has shattered nil Records and it’s -n even bet that bigger results with follow with “The Kid Brother.” as it’s believed to be the finest production, both from the sheer human interest and comedy angle, which he has ever made for J