Author Archive: Retro

A pleasant little film from crosseyed Ben Turpin. The tape I have with this movie on it contains several other Turpin movies, and from watching them, I believe the reason he didn’t achieve the fame of the great silent comics was because he never really solidified his character. He plays a thief, a milquetoast, a masher, a victim.

A stationary camera looks on as two dapper gents play a game of chess. One drinks and smokes, and when he looks away, his opponent moves two pieces. A fight ensues, first with the squirting of a seltzer bottle, then with fisticuffs. The combatants wrestle each other to the floor and continue the fight out of the camera’s view, hidden by the table. The waiter arrives to haul both of them out.

Leon’s friend Harry Harvey wants to go on to a party after they return from a fishing trip, so Leon takes Harry’s car and heads for home. A blonde, thinking the car is a Taxi, gets in and orders Leon to take her home. The police chase the speeding Leon, and he eludes them but they get the license number and arrest Harry. Leon tells the Judge that Harry was on his way to get married, and the judge offers to perform the ceremony. Leon is forced to masquerade as the bride, which lasts only until Harry’s wife shows up.

The tale of an average guy who wants to read the newspaper or fish in peace. Unfortunately, he can’t because of a brat of a son and a rough mother-in-law. Such a simple story that will have you gasping your breath.

Coke Ennyday, the scientific detective, divides his own time in periods for “Sleep”, “Eat”, “Dope” and “Drink”. In fact he’s used to overcome every situation with drugs: consuming it to increase his energies or injecting it in his opponents to KO them. To help the police he discovers a contraband of opium (which he eagerly tastes) transported with “Leaping Fishes”, and the blackmail of a mysterious man who wants to marry the “fish blower” girl. Will Coke be able to free the girl ?

Walrus and his wife run the Walrus Hotel, which acrobats Mr. & Mrs. Ambrose are staying at. Walrus gets a letter from his insurance broker Mr. Cinder demanding a payment. Short on cash, Walrus decides to get his tenants’ money now. Ambrose and his wife are in the middle of a domestic squabble when Walrus pays a visit, and his presence only makes things worse. Mr. Cinder visits Walrus himself, and he carelessly throws his cigarette into a trash can. After he leaves, the hotel catches on fire and the rest of the film is a thrilling five-minute race to pay off the insurance!

The cyclist is dispatched upon an important errand, and his humorous and alarming adventures by the way form the subject of this series. Misadventure follows misadventure with great frequency, but the cyclist comes up smiling every time, mounts his machine, and again resumes his journey. Accidents which would maim or kill an ordinary mortal serve only to spur him on to fresh exertions in a mad search for physical inconveniences and dangers, which always present themselves. It may indeed be predicted of the hero that he will either die peacefully in his bed or end his career through slipping on a piece of orange peel, or swallowing a pin. Only an ordinary and simple ending would be appropriate after such a strenuous life. Certainly he will never be hanged or drowned. He charges at full speed a horse-drawn tram car, and is upset. He attacks the double windows of a corner shop, to falls into [...]

In the first Henry Aldrich film, Henry (Jackie Cooper) is falsely accused of making trouble at school. He must clear himself.

When Tweedledum’s girl is kidnapped by bad men, he springs into action.