Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Nut (1921)

This exuberant society comedy, directed by Theodore Reed, stars Douglas Fairbanks and Marguerite De La Motte, with William Lowery, Gerald Pring, Morris Hughes, Barbara La Marr and Sydney dé Grey.

Eager inventor Charlie Jackson (Fairbanks) vies for the affections of socially-conscious Estrell (Marguerite De La Motte) in competition with “hard-boiled gink” Philip Feeney (Lowery), a sophisticated criminal. Claudine Dupree (La Marr), a woman of questionable morals, is jealous of Feeney’s attentions heaped on Estrell.

After Charlie bungles the entertainment at one of Estrell’s get-togethers, he thinks he has arranged for important high society persons to appear at Estrell’s next party to enlist volunteers for her childrens’ charity projects. Instead, he has accidentally enlisted the help of one of Feeney’s criminal cohorts. Charlie quickly learns of the fraud. Not wanting to disappoint Estrell again, Charlie attempts to recruit replacements and ends up with the bright idea of nicking wax figures to stand in for the socialites. Of course, this backfires.

On the outs with Estrell again, Charlie tries a number of ways to enlist the help of socialite Pernelius Vanderbrook. Meanwhile, Feeney makes a forward press on Estrelle, taking her to his den of thieves, and Charlie meets Vanderbrook’s son, a cub reporter. Together they join forces to rescue Estrell while pursued by police. The proceedings turn into a fast-paced melodrammer until the inevitable happy ending.

The last of Fairbanks’ ‘go-get-em’ light comedies, made after The Mark of Zorro and before The Three Musketeers, is a bit of entertaining puffery that is, nonetheless, a fun and fitting farewell to the first phase of Fairbanks’ cinematic career.

— Carl Bennett

This DVD edition has been mastered from a very-good but incomplete 35mm positive struck in the 1950s from the camera negative, from the Museum of Modern Art. The greyscale range is broad with controlled highlight and shadow details. There is a moderate amount of dust and speckling, emulsion scuffing, and a mild amount of frame jitters. The slightly windowboxed standard definition video transfer (dating back to the 1990s) is a tiny bit of a problem, with picture details that aren’t as sharp they could be (even allowing for the limitations of DVD). Still frames reveal a coarseness to the image and some video compression artifacts that (thankfully) aren’t apparent in the moving picture. The image looked pretty good on the old CRT televisions, but today’s upscaling high-definition systems can’t do much to improve the perceived resolution issue. The insert booklet notes scenes that are missing from the source material that could have benefitted from an updated transfer.

The film is accompanied by a lively and pleasing musical score composed and performed on piano by Philip Carli.

Supplemental material includes a 32-page booklet with film notes by Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta; production stills and pressbook reproductions; an audio essay for A Modern Musketeer by Vance and Maietta; and a reproduction of Fairbanks’ first film contract. This boxset collection won an award at Il Cinema Ritrovato in 2009 for excellence.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film, but there is certainly room for an improved edition.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is available directly from . . .

The film is accompanied by a new music score by David Knudtson, likely performed on the Miditzer virtual theater organ (computer-based) system.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .