THE OLD SWIMMIN' HOLE
Starring Charles Ray
PHOTOPLAY
May 1921
There have been two samples of titleless pictures recently that have lent strength to the arguments of those opposed to them. Once as "The Kid," in which Charles Chaplin found it practically unnecessary to explain in print either the intentions of his characters or the lapses in his story. The other, Charles Ray's "The Old Swimmin' Hole," goes even farther and has not so much as a single sub-title throughout its six reels in length. Of course it is not a story that demands titles. No one in it could possibly have anything worth titling to say, and there is no story at all in the plot sense. It is a day in the life of a small-town boy, a rather overgrown and clumsy small-town boy, necessarily, as Ray plays him, but a lovable, human, untheatrical type. It could go on and on for sixteen as easily as for six reels and, so long as it was kept as human and as true to the general acceptance of a small-town boy's life, as Ray and his director, Joseph DeGrasse, keep this much of it, it would be an interesting and enjoyable picture.
Video source: Movies Unlimited