Stephen Steps Out

Stephen Steps Out
Lobby card
Directed byJoseph Henabery
Written byEdfrid Bingham (scenario)
Based on"The Grand Cross of the Desert"
by Richard Harding Davis
Produced byJesse Lasky
William Elliott
StarringDouglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Harry Myers
CinematographyFaxon M. Dean
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • November 18, 1923 (1923-11-18)
Running time
6 reels; (5,652 feet)
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

Stephen Steps Out is a 1923 American silent comedy film that is notable as being the first starring role for the still teenaged Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Directed by Joseph Henabery, it was based on a short story by Richard Harding Davis, "The Grand Cross of the Desert."[1]

With this film the young Fairbanks Jr. opted for a screen career despite opposition from his famous actor father, Douglas Fairbanks.

"I was terribly chubby," recalled Fairbanks Jr. "Did it for the money. When my parents separated, it was hardly amicable and mother and I needed to eat. Movie companies were willing to exploit my famous name. I didn't really understand that at the time."[2]

Plot

As described in a film magazine review,[3] the young son of a wealthy American fails his class in history at school, so he is sent to Turkey to learn the subject firsthand on the premises. He learns that the instructor who flunked him in his exam at school is to be dismissed for it, and he intervenes and gets the school board to retain the man, having first obtained for him a decoration from the Sultan.

Cast

Preservation

With no prints of Stephen Steps Out located in any film archives,[4] it is a lost film.[5][6]

References

  1. ^ Progressive Silent Film List: Stephen Steps Out at silentera.com
  2. ^ Bawden, James; Miller, Ron (March 4, 2016). Conversations with Classic Film Stars: Interviews from Hollywood's Golden Era. University Press of Kentucky. p. 94. ISBN 9780813167121.
  3. ^ "Tried and Proven Pictures: Stephen Steps Out". Exhibitors Trade Review. New York, NY: Exhibitors Review Publishing Corporation: 40. May 3, 1924. Retrieved November 28, 2022. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ^ The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Stephen Steps Out
  5. ^ The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1921-30 by The American Film Institute, c.1971
  6. ^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Stephen Steps Out
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