Sweet Daddies

1926 film

June 13, 1926 (1926-06-13)

Running time

70 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageSilent (English intertitles)

Sweet Daddies is a 1926 American silent comedy crime film directed by Alfred Santell and starring George Sidney, Charles Murray, and Vera Gordon.^[1] The film foregrounds positive relationships between Jewish and Irish American characters, despite the presence of some stereotypes.^[2]^[1]

The plot revolves around comedic mishaps in the bootleg liquor business.^[3] The romance between the daughter of the Jewish Finkelstein family and the son of the Irish O’Brien family ends happily.^[4]

Cast

George Sidney as Abie Finklebaum
Charles Murray as Patrick O'Brien
Vera Gordon as Rose Finklebaum^[5]
Jobyna Ralston as Mariam Finklebaum
Jack Mulhall as Jimmy O'Brien
Gaston Glass as Sam Berkowitz
Aggie Herring as Mrs. O'Brien

Reception

The New York Times film critic described it thus:

One really can't quite grasp what this picture is all about, as there are sudden interruptions, for the sake of comedy, which crop up according to the whims of the director and scenarist. The fun is good-natured, but just about as probable as the dropping of a leather pouch on a schooner's deck from an airplane a couple of thousand feet in the air, which incidentally happens in this tepid affair.^[3]

Impact

Sidney and Murray, who portrayed the fathers of the two families, would go on to work together in many films that, focusing on Jewish and Irish relations, were often described as “ethnic comedies.”^[6]^[7]

Jobyna Robson (Mariam Finkelstein) would go on to be regarded as a great silent film comedian.^[8] Arthur Edeson became a major cinematographer.^[9]

References

^ ^a ^b Erens, Patricia (1984). The Jew in American Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 89, 91. ISBN 978-0-253-20493-6.
^ Biskupski, M. B. B. (January 8, 2010). Hollywood's War with Poland, 1939–1945. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-3932-6.
^ ^a ^b Hall, Mordaunt (June 23, 1926). "THE SCREEN; The Finklebaums and the O'Briens". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
^ "Sweet Daddies". Irish Film & TV Research Online, Trinity College Dublin. August 13, 2019. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
^ "Vera Gordon". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
^ Biskupski, M. B. B. (January 8, 2010). Hollywood's War with Poland, 1939–1945. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-3932-6.
^ Bradley, Edwin M. (April 27, 2009). The First Hollywood Sound Shorts, 1926-1931. McFarland. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-7864-4319-2.
^ Roots, James (October 23, 2014). The 100 Greatest Silent Film Comedians. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-4422-3650-9.
^ Monaco, James (1991). The Encyclopedia of Film. Perigee Books. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-399-51604-7.