Author Archive: Retro

A counterfeit count is aided in his courtship of the heroine by her father who is overwhelmed by his ‘title.’

Ferdie’s wife is fox-trot crazy, wanting to go dancing all the time. To get out of it, Ferdie fakes an ankle injury. When his wife spies him walking without his crutch, she writes a letter to her stern mother, inviting her to stay with them while Ferdie heals. Rather than face his mother-in-law, Ferdie admits he was faking his injury, and tears up the letter.

A winner and sure to please. In front of one of the largest newspaper offices is a hot air shaft through which immense volumes of air are forced by a blower. Ladies in crossing this shaft often have their clothes slightly disarranged. A young man is escorting a young lady and talking very earnestly. They walk slowly along until they stand directly over the air shaft. The young lady’s skirts are suddenly raised to an almost unreasonable height, greatly to her horror and much to the amusement of the newsboys, bootblacks, and passersby.

Leon’s wife wants to surprise him by buying the cabin where they had spent their honeymoon. But when she secretly meets with the man who owns the cabin, Leon misunderstands what she is doing, and gets suspicious. When his friend at work convinces Leon that his wife is going to run away with another man, Leon decides to take immediate action.

Errol, threatened with the loss of his job and his wife, promises to lay off the horses, but is persuaded into a purchasing a sweepstakes ticket by a business associate.

A slapstick burlesque of 19th Century Victorian melodrama featuring a parody of Holmes and Watson who rescue a heroine held by a mustache-twirling villain in a den of caricatured Chinese gangsters.

Marcel Perez’ boss tells him he must work late Friday evening and all day Saturday. Perez doesn’t let that stop him from keeping his beach date with Nilde Baracchi — which doesn’t go as well as planned in this funny short comedy.The Internet Movie DataBase claims that William Seiter is the director of this movie. Ben Model and Steve Massa, who curated it from a first reel held at the Museum of Modern Art, a second reel at the Library of Congress and examining newspaper and copyright files, say that Perez directed it. Perez, who was on his third or fourth career as a leading screen comedian — every time he rose to prominence, he would change his name, his studio, his country of origin, his marital status…. he had moved to the United States a couple of years earlier and was making a name for himself, merging American and European styles. This one seems [...]