West Point

West Point (1927)

Genres - Drama  |   Release Date - Jan 7, 1928 (USA - Unknown)  |   Run Time - 105 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Review by Janiss Garza

This comedy-drama was the third picture William Haines made with director Edward Sedgwick and the second with his good pal Joan Crawford as his co-star. By late 1927, when it was released, Haines' pictures had fallen into a comfortable formula: the smart ass young man (Haines) gets the wind knocked out of his sails and proves he's a good guy after all. This time around, Haines' character, Brice Wayne, wisecracks his way through West Point ("From now on West Point is going to amount to something," he crows as he arrives on the famed campus). The plot is almost identical to Brown of Harvard, the picture that made Haines a star. As in the prior film, Haines has a best buddy who's nearly as important as the girl (played by Crawford). Unfortunately, William Bakewell, who plays the pal, Tex McNeil, was an inexperienced greenhorn at the time and he overacts throughout most of the film. Crawford, who was still a newcomer, doesn't have a lot to do, but she still stands out. Although she's supposed to be a nice girl in the film, she's certainly not your typical ingénue -- she displays the edge that would become more finely honed later on in her career. Although West Point did well at the box office, it wasn't anywhere near as good a film as Brown of Harvard. It's a routine late '20s Haines picture, even when considering the brand-new score created by David Davidson.