Two Arabian Knights

In the First World War two American soldiers who cannot stand each other end up in the same German prison camp. They can only escape together, and the escape carries them a long way, as far as the Arabian peninsula. A young woman they rescue on the road keeps them from ever making peace, and the quarrel runs the length of the film. Directed by Lewis Milestone, this silent comedy holds an award given only once in film history: best director in the comedy category at the first Academy Awards. That category was never used again. It was the first picture from the company Howard Hughes had set up as producer. The way the film draws the Arab world and its female character belongs entirely to its period and reads as cliché now.