Pool Sharks

This silent movie is only really of interest to me as the first screen appearance of W.C. Fields. If Fields had not subsequently become the great movie comedian of twenty years later, I am sure this movie would be of no interest to me or others who have been drawn to watching it.

I hope that nobody comes to this movie expecting to see Fields' famous pool table routine that he frequently used through his successful stage career. Although the idea for this movie may have been to reproduce that routine for the screen, the final decision was to use animated shots of pool balls to create the comedy of that part of the film. For a screen appearance of Fields' pool table routine, go to the movie "Six of a Kind".

This was, of course, the first moving picture featuring W. C. Fields. It is just so-so, if you didn't know who it was and if it wasn't so historical for being Fields' first, it probably would attract little attention. Fields truly was more a verbal performer, and it would take the advent of sound to truly cement his niche in motion picture history. But, as such, it is an interesting historical short, has a few chuckles, but little more. At the time Fields was working for the Ziegfeld Follies and was doing a similar trick pool table routine in his act (although how this could all have really been appreciated by a large audience in a huge theater, I have no idea...) and what is seen here is a camera trick version of what would have been accomplished mechanically on his rigged table. The pool game is the highlight of this short, the rest concerns vying for the attention of a woman at an outdoor picnic (no doubt using outdoors for the lighting). If you enjoy Fields and must see all of his work, or want to see his first efforts on film, definately worth seeking out.

This W. C. Fields film truly is representative of the time in which it was made. In 1915, most silent comedies were pure slapstick--with lots of punching, slapping and pratfalls and hardly any plot. The films were mostly acted "off the cuff" with no detailed script and as a result, the movies seem rough and not particularly memorable in most cases. This movie is about average for the time--but in no way does it appear like the character Mr. Fields played in his later films. It's really a shame, as the movie could have just as easily starred any silent comedian of the day.

Fields and another guy inexplicably dislike each other (you can tell due to all the slapping and hitting). They challenge each other to a pool competition and both men proceed to make some totally impossible shots. This part was awfully silly and COULD have been good, but the trick cinematography was done poorly and looks totally fake--even by 1915 standards. If they had just sped up the film, it would have come off perfectly. Other than that, nothing else stands out in my mind. It's just another silent slapstick comedy.

This movie debut from W.C. Fields is a fairly nondescript affair that presents only fleeting glimpses of the comedy legend Fields would become on the screen. The 35-year-old comedian is far from the finished article here. The booze hadn't yet gone to work on those unmistakable features, but he already looked older than his years. He sports a bushy moustache in this one, that would be pruned back over the years before disappearing completely, and relies too heavily on some fairly unpleasant comic violence for laughs that don't often materialise. In one scene he holds open his love rival's eye between finger and thumb so that he can poke it precisely with an extended forefinger – a coldly savage moment designed to appeal to the baser instincts of the film's target audience.

Although he's barely recognisable as the character with whom we would become familiar, Fields already displays his trademark animosity towards small children when he tips over the chair of a small boy, efficiently dispatching the child so that he can sit beside the woman whose affections he seeks. When he and his rival aren't antagonising each other, we are entertained by stop-motion photography of pool balls travelling around a table before returning to their original position, entering the pockets via impossible angles or flying onto a shelf on the wall. It probably knocked them out in 1915, but it's all familiar stuff now.

Of interest to curiosity seekers only…

Given its significance in the career of the great comic W.C. Fields, "Pool Sharks" would certainly be worth seeing for its historical interest alone. In itself, it's probably just an average feature for its time and genre, and it doesn't give Fields the chance to shows his greatest strengths, but it is fun to see him in such an early screen appearance.

You can see the strong influence of Chaplin and Keystone, as the plot and all the characters are patterned after those styles. Fields plays one of two rivals for the hands of a girl, and his character gets involved in the kind of manic slapstick that characterized a great many short comedies in the mid-1910s. Nothing wrong with that at all, and while "Pool Sharks" in itself would not stand out, it probably would not have left too many of its original viewers disappointed, either.

Besides the slapstick, there are some visual effects with the pool table, and while the special effects technique is rudimentary, it's amusing enough.

For the most part, Fields himself just has to keep up with the madcap pace, and cannot do some of the things that he did best, yet you can see his talent when he has the chance to show it.