“WHITE PANTS WILLIE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 221, 7 December 1927, Page 15

“WHITE PANTS WILLIE”

AT PRINCESS TO-MORROW “White Pants Willie,” Johnny Hines’s new First National Picture, produced under the personal supervision of C. C. Burr, is scheduled to break all laughter records when it opens at the Princess Theatre to-mor-row. According to reports from Hollywood, where it was previewed in various theatres, the picture is crammed with hilarious moments from start to finish. “White Pants Willie” is a screen version of Elmer Davis’s humorous serial story that ran for several months in “Liberty Magazine,” and attracted unusual attention at the time. The story abounds in good-natured fun and the characterisation of Willie Bascom, who succumbs to his longing to wear white pants, is declared to fit Johnny Hines like a glove. The picture tells the story of Willie, who works in a garage and invents a magnetic bumper to save auto tyres from tacks and nails in the roadways. Willie finally rebels against the hardboiled garage owner, dresses up in his white pants and hies himself to Cold Springs, a fashionable summer resort where he knows the girl of his dreams is stopping with. her father. Upon arrival, Willie is mistaken for a crack polo player and is forced to enter a championship match. The embryonic polo player comes through with flying colours after a series of hilarious events. He wins the girl and also the support of her father, an automobile magnate, who becomes interested in Willie’s invention.