For the Love of Mike

Infobox Film
name = For the Love of Mike

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caption =
director = Frank Capra
producer = Robert Kane
writer = J. Clarkson Miller
John A. Moroso (story)
starring = Claudette Colbert
Ben Lyon
George Sidney
Ford Sterling
Hugh Cameron
music =
cinematography = Ernest Haller
editing =
distributor = First National Pictures
released = 31 July 1927
runtime = 75 min
country = USA
awards =
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:91978
imdb_id = 0017898

"For the Love of Mike" (1927) is a film directed by Frank Capra, and starring Claudette Colbert and Ben Lyon.

Plot

From a press release for the film: The story is a comedy-drama and tells the tale of three old cronies, a German, a Jew and an Irishman, who adopt a waif and go through much misery, "All for the Love of Mike," from which the picture gets its title. The time jumps 20 years during the picture, and shows young Mike in college, where he proceeds to acquire the "swell" head, and refuses to acknowledge his foster-parents, which leads to the Irishman giving him a sound thrashing in front of the boy's best friends. One thing leads to another, and the climax comes when the boy makes a thrilling finish to a boat race that he is supposed to have thrown. The three cronies come to the front and take care of a group of gamblers who had been leading the lad astray.

Critical Reaction

"Trite and worn as the plot may be - how (writer John A.) Moroso dared to offer it as 'original' is a question that even the seventh son of a seventh son with a veil cannot answer - it is possible to enthuse over the handling of the Harvard-Yale race. The real and reel thing fuse smoothly, and I defy you to sit unmoved as the two shells race down the river." (Chester B. Bahn, drama critic of the Syracuse Herald)

Frank Capra considered this the worst movie of his career. When this film was completed, there was no money left to pay Capra, so he had to hitchhike back to Hollywood from New York City. It is now considered a lost film -- no print is known to currently exist.

Cast

*Claudette Colbert as Mary
*Ben Lyon as Mike
*George Sidney as Abraham Katz
*Ford Sterling as Herman Schultz
*Hugh Cameron as Patrick O'Malley
*Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher as Coxey Pendleton
*Rudolph Cameron as Henry Sharp
*Mabel Swor as Evelyn Joyce

External links

*tcmdb title|id=492990|title=For the Love of Mike