| Lilac Time | |
|---|---|
Lilac Time theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | George Fitzmaurice Frank Lloyd (uncredited) |
| Produced by | John McCormick |
| Written by | Guy Fowler (book) Jane Cowl (play) Jane Murfin (play) Willis Goldbeck (adaptation) Adela Rogers St. John (adaptation) Carey Wilson (scenario) George Marion, Jr. (intertitles) |
| Starring | Colleen Moore Gary Cooper |
| Music by | Cecil Copping Nathaniel Shilkret |
| Cinematography | Sidney Hickox |
| Editing by | Alexander Hall |
| Studio | First National Pictures |
| Distributed by | First National Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 3, 1928 (NYC) October 18, 1928 (US) October 28, 1929 (Finland) |
| Running time | 11 reels/ 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
Lilac Time (1928) is a silent romantic war film directed by George Fitzmaurice, starring Colleen Moore and Gary Cooper, produced by John McCormick (Moore's husband), and distributed by First National Pictures.
The film is based on a 1917 Broadway play written by Jane Murfin and actress Jane Cowl, who adapted the story from a book by Guy Fowler.[1] This film was released with a Vitaphone score and music effects but no spoken dialogue.
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The film was shot on sets at First National's Burbank studio and on location in El Torro, California, where a working airstrip, full-sized French Village and farm were built. In addition was a portable machine shop to service the eight aircraft secured for the production. Looking for realism, many extras cast as soldiers in the film had been actual World War I soldiers, in the ranks they protrayed. The chief stunt pilot, Dick Grace, had only finished doing stunt work on the Paramount film Wings almost two months earlier. Grace sustained a severe neck injury in a stunt crash while making Wings but recovered in time for Lilac Time.
Lilac Time had its opening in Los Angeles at the Carthay Circle Theatre where, in the lobby, among other promotional materials on display, was the wrecked fuselage of one of the aircraft that had been totalled during the filming. The film cost a million dollars to make, an amount equal to Moore's previous two films. The studio recouped the cost of the film within months. By the end of 1928, the film had out-performed Moore's earlier star vehicle Flaming Youth (1923).
Among those in the cast were Colleen Moore's brother Cleve (under the name Cleve Moore) and Jack Stone, her cousin. Eugenie Besserer had played "Mrs. Goode," a mother figure for her character, in Colleen's earlier film Little Orphan Annie, the first film to bring Colleen a measure of fame.[2]