Burning Daylight (1928) - A Review

Burning Daylight (1928) First National Picture starring Milton Sills.
I consider myself to be a big fan of Milton Sills.  Sills had a lot going for him in my opinion, handsome, brainy and he had a rugged charm.  Sills could play a suave villain, he could be the handsome swain, and he could be the he-man fighting the elements.  In the 1928 film Burning Daylight, he got to play two and a half out of three. The half is for being a little bit suave once he cleans up nicely.

Burning Daylight is based upon the Jack London novel from 1910.  It was adapted and filmed three times in the silent era: in 1914, 1920 and in this the 1928 version.  The 1914 version was directed by and starred Hobart Bosworth and is considered a lost film.

Hobart Bosworth as Burning Daylight

 The 1920 film was directed by Edward Sloman and starred Mitchell Lewis as Burning Daylight. The American Silent Feature Film Database indicates this film is held in a foreign archive, but, the archive is not identified. I can only hope the Sloman film is way better than his 1927 film Surrender, which was a dreadful film and a great disappointment given the buildup it got.

Mitchell Lewis as Burning Daylight (1920)

The 1928 Milton Sills feature survives at the Library of Congress in 35mm, which I would love to see.  My source for this viewing was from Grapevine Video.

As I mentioned above, in this film Sills was sort of a combo, tough Yukon gold prospector named Burning Daylight and a bit of a rube who gets fleeced (temporarily) by the bad San Francisco swells. We first see him coming in to town hell bent for leather with sled dogs, winning a bet by making it in through a blizzard on the deadline. Gruff, bearded and unwashed he's a beloved brute of the town.

Rustic and handsome devil

Doris Kenyon (the real Mrs. Milton Sills) plays Virgie the local saloon lass who pines and crushes hard for Burning Daylight.  I cannot say that I blame her. Daylight rescues Virgie from a drunken man hell bent on raping her.  She leaves the saloon trade and learns typewriting instead. This seems to be a very wise move on Virgie's part.

Her wig is HUGE, who was Virgie's hairdresser?

Soon the town has visitors from San Francisco, high society swells. Seems quite a distance for a lark, if you ask me. Burning Daylight teams with his pals (they being Guinn “Big Boy” Williams and Arthur Stone) to speculate on the growth of the town with a coming gold rush and buy up lots of land and build a new town. In this case, his idea pans out and they make their fortune selling the land.

Jane Winton vamping 1890's style

Daylight is attracted to the visiting Martha Fairbee of San Francisco (Jane Winton), much to Virgie’s disappointment. They are enticed to head to San Francisco to live off their wealth, invest and live the good life. Once they hit San Francisco, Burning Daylight is a project for Miss Fairbee and she assigns him to Mr. Percival Blake (Stuart Holmes in a hilarious turn here) to teach him how to behave in society and appreciate the nicer things in life.

Percival Blake in agony across the table from Daylight

While Daylight is blindsided by Fairbee and her friends, Daylight and his pals invest in the stock market.  Daylight believes in his good luck and gambles and soon is fleeced out of his fortune. Daylight, however, has a plan to get all their money back and Virgie gets her man.

You do not want to piss off Milton Sills

Burning Daylight was directed by Charles Brabin, famously fired from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s epic Ben-Hur which is another story. Not much more than directing traffic here.  I was hoping for some stock footage of San Francisco and was sadly denied. Other than the opening blizzard, this was pretty much all interiors. I suspect the budget was pretty tight and it showed.  This source print was pretty dark and often murky.  This is a shame because the cameraman was Sol Poilito and I bet an original print is much better looking than this murky and at other times overexposed print source.  As a fan of Sills, this was a must see for me and he rarely disappoints. He goes a little over the top when he find's out he's been had. Kenyon does not get too much to do but pine for Burning Daylight. Since she was married to Sills, pining for him on screen was not a stretch for her.  She's pretty and you root for her because you can see her heart on her sleeve from the start.  Sill's Daylight is just too much a galoot to realize she's the prize, not the money.

Photoplay's Review:

An interesting tale of a virile he-man who refuses to have the millions he made in the Yukon gold rush snatched away by San Francisco gentlemen crooks. Milton Sills digs his gold, manhandles his enemies and holds a gun as Jack London, the author, would have had him do it. Doris Kenyon is adorable as the faithful sweetheart. Jane Winton makes a stunning vamp. Splendid everyday entertainment. Worth seeing.