Query for the old B&W film experts.
Posted: 19 Mar 2012, 21:13
I am looking for the name of a black and white silent film, which I first saw on an uncles Pathe Baby 9.5 mm. projector some time in the Early '40s. I then saw it again, many years after, on TV, at a time when there was only BBC and ITV. It seems to me to be one of Mack Sennet's master pieces, but just who the main man was doing the performing I do not know.
The rough outline of the “plot” was as follows. An alarm clock wakes up “the hero” of the film, by means of a feather, attached to the bell hammer, tickling his foot. It also puts into motion a string of events including wakening up a hen to lay the hero's breakfast. The hero get up after his breakfast and all the curtains and other soft furnishings turn out to be his clothes doing double duty. Most of the actions are triggered by the hero pulling cords above the bed. The final cord causes the bed to swing upwards and backwards into the rear wall of the room and beneath it, built into the bed, is a fire place with a lovely warming fire blazing away.
He goes out of the house and stops at a garbage bin, slides the “b”, on the “Garbage”sign, to one side and it reveals “Garage”. The side of the bin opens and out comes a small single seater teardop shaped vehicle in which is a very over sized magnet.
He sits in the teardrop and point the magnet at the next passing Model T and he is whisked away “in tow”.
This was the end of my uncles film, but the film I saw on TV must have included reel two of a two reeler, because the action that followed was the classic Mack Sennet automobile mahem. He gets towed hither and thither and eventually hooks on to a “Cutie” being driven along by her straight laced father. The end point was when, after a load of chasing etc., the magnet “pulled off” the top half of fathers car, which flopped on to the road and allowed the chassis and running gear to proceed along its way unencumbered.
The rough outline of the “plot” was as follows. An alarm clock wakes up “the hero” of the film, by means of a feather, attached to the bell hammer, tickling his foot. It also puts into motion a string of events including wakening up a hen to lay the hero's breakfast. The hero get up after his breakfast and all the curtains and other soft furnishings turn out to be his clothes doing double duty. Most of the actions are triggered by the hero pulling cords above the bed. The final cord causes the bed to swing upwards and backwards into the rear wall of the room and beneath it, built into the bed, is a fire place with a lovely warming fire blazing away.
He goes out of the house and stops at a garbage bin, slides the “b”, on the “Garbage”sign, to one side and it reveals “Garage”. The side of the bin opens and out comes a small single seater teardop shaped vehicle in which is a very over sized magnet.
He sits in the teardrop and point the magnet at the next passing Model T and he is whisked away “in tow”.
This was the end of my uncles film, but the film I saw on TV must have included reel two of a two reeler, because the action that followed was the classic Mack Sennet automobile mahem. He gets towed hither and thither and eventually hooks on to a “Cutie” being driven along by her straight laced father. The end point was when, after a load of chasing etc., the magnet “pulled off” the top half of fathers car, which flopped on to the road and allowed the chassis and running gear to proceed along its way unencumbered.