The First Auto

Roy Del Ruth, Warner Bros., 1927. Vitaphone music and effects, no spoken dialogue. Charles Emmett Mack and Patsy Ruth Miller; Barney Oldfield as himself, the master driver. The AFI, seventy-five minutes, 18 September: Hank Armstrong loves horses, hates the horseless carriage, disowns son Bob for racing, then sabotages a car without knowing Bob will drive it. Bob survives; Hank is cured; Bob gets Rose. Anthony Coldeway wrote it, Darryl Zanuck among the credits. Maple City, 1895. The livery stable loses, slowly.