All Wet (1924 film) explained

All Wet
Director:Leo McCarey
Producer:Hal Roach
Starring:Charley Chase
Cinematography:Len Powers
Studio:Hal Roach Studios
Distributor:Pathé Exchange
Runtime:10 minutes
Country:United States
Language:Silent film
English intertitles

All Wet is a 1924 American film starring Charley Chase and featuring William Gillespie, 'Tonnage' Martin Wolfkeil and Jack Gavin.[1] It also featured an uncredited appearance of the future star Janet Gaynor in one of her very first roles.[2]

Plot

Jimmie Jump is a boarder who receives an urgent telegram telling him to pick up a large shipment from the train station at exactly 2:30 p.m. the following Wednesday. On the appointed day, Jimmie has great difficulty getting to the station in his Ford Model T: enroute, the vehicle becomes stuck in mud, is sunk in a lake, then torn apart by a tow truck. To add insult to injury, Jimmie is cited for illegal parking. Ironically, he discovers that his errand was performed on the wrong day.[3]

Cast

Production

All Wet was shot over the course of seven days at Hollenbeck Park, near downtown Los Angeles.[5]

Reception

In a contemporary review of the film, Thomas C. Kennedy wrote, "When it comes to comedy of the clean-cut, theatrically effective sort, there is no surer hand in the realm of short subject specialists than Charles Parrott."[6]

Legacy

The main gag of the car stuck in the watery ditch was remade by Chase in the 1933 talkie short Fallen Arches.[7] In his book, Hooked on Hollywood: Discoveries from a Lifetime of Film Fandom, critic Leonard Maltin wrote that this "hilarious" scene triumphed over the remake partly because "the reality of a talking world couldn't accommodate bizarre or surreal sight gags".[8]

See also

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: All Wet. Silent Era. 19 February 2024.
  2. Book: Commire . Annie . Women in World History . 6 . Yorkin Publications . Gale virtual reference library . 2000 . 978-0-7876-4068-2 . February 19, 2024 . 120.
  3. Hooper and Poague, 1980 in Leo McCarey Filmography section, p. 297: Plot summary.
  4. Book: Vogel, Michelle . Olive Borden: The Life and Films of Hollywood's "Joy Girl" . McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers . 2010 . 978-0-7864-5836-3 . February 19, 2024 . 155.
  5. Book: Billips, Connie J. . Janet Gaynor: A Bio-Bibliography . Bloomsbury Academic . Bio-Bibliographies in the Performing Arts . 1992 . 978-0-313-27574-6 . February 19, 2024.
  6. Book: Ward, Richard Lewis . When the Cock Crows: A History of the Pathé Exchange . Southern Illinois University Press . 2016 . 978-0-8093-3497-1 . February 19, 2024 . 82.
  7. Book: S.D., Trav . Trav S.D. . Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies, From Nickelodeons to Youtube . BookBaby . 2013 . 978-1-62933-051-8 . February 19, 2024 . 176.
  8. Book: Maltin, Leonard . Leonard Maltin . Hooked on Hollywood: Discoveries from a Lifetime of Film Fandom . GoodKnight Books . 2018 . 978-1-7322735-0-4 . February 19, 2024 . 131.