October 20: One Glorious Day (1922)

 

One Glorious Day is a lost Paramount production directed by James Cruze starring Will Rogers and released in early 1922.  Judging from the surviving materials, it was probably quite the strange little comedy. Frankly most of the stills show that the "spirit" Ek, an entity featured in the film only briefly in his original form, look far scarier than the film likely intended, this was a comedy after all. 

Rogers plays Professor Ezra Botts a scientist, who dabbles in psychic experiments. Ek is a mischievous little spirit who is waiting his turn for a body to inhabit (is this a story of reincarnation??), but sneaks off to the earthly plane to find a vessel for himself. In other words, he skips the queue. Owed to his experiments, professor Botts makes himself vulnerable to "inhabitation" and Ek takes advantage of this. In the meantime, Botts' actual spirit finds itself wandering the astral plane, disembodied and confused. He must wait until the little spirit Ek has enough of it's antics in Botts' body and leaves, to re-inhabit his own body. Apparently all kinds of physical comedy ensues. From the descriptions that survive of the film, it sounds like a cross between the drunken nightmare in Dream of a Rarebit Fiend in Edwin S. Porter film from 1906 and a slapstick comedy from the 1910's such as one finds in an Arbuckle/St. John/Keaton film.

And, in fact, the film was actually intended to be a vehicle for Roscoe Arbuckle; Will Rogers only took his place as the protagonist after the Virginia Rappe scandal broke early in the film's production.  Arbuckle had been the main creative force behind the project; he had contributed the lion's share of the film's concept. The rest of the cast was little changed and included Lila Lee as the love interest, and Alan Hale Sr. Child actor John Fox was mocked up as Ek, who I am sure was thought to be silly by the make-up crew...but, really, come on, it comes off quite creepy today! Even by the standards of the day, Ek made an impression; and for a lost film, the image is pretty famous, making regular rounds on the social media sites every year around Halloween.  Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine founder Forrest J. Ackerman, who is a GIANT in the science fiction (and horror) community, and is credited the coining "Sci-Fi" as a phrase, claimed that this was the film that sparked is life long love of both the science fiction and horror/monster genres. Some sources have it as the first film that he actually ever saw as a child. 

Suviving photo from the set of the film (wikimedia commons)

As far as what the film might have been up to in regards to the supernatural, one of it's working titles, Souls Before Birth, gives a hint that Ek is indeed some sort of "pre-born" or even reiencarnated spirit. His incarnating within the body of the professor (taking temporary possession of) also seems to be a kind of precursor to "possession" films that we all so familiar with today; the most famous of which remains The Exorcist. 

Below are a couple of lobby cards from the film.

[Images in public domain, from Wikimedia and IMDb film photos]