There It Is

It's a darn shame that Charley Bowers is practically unknown today and that so few of his films remain. It's because his work is among the cleverest and strangest of the silent era--and there really is nothing like it. I first came in contact with his work with a wonderful DVD collection "Charley Bowers: The Rediscovery of an American Comic Genius". And, sadly, the only other film I could find that was not in this set is this one, "There It Is"--a terrific and wacky comedy if there ever was one! This film begins at a home where LOTS of strange things are occurring. The camera tricks Bowers used to make this strange things occur were outstanding and still hold up quite well today. Seeing an egg being cracked open and a full-size chicken soon materializing from it, dancing pants and all the other sight gags are very complicated and many of them were done using stop-motion--a trademark of Bowers' comedy. Anyway, in addition to these oddities, a very odd looking bald man keeps appearing and disappearing and doing lots of strange things. It's all a visual treat for the audience, but the Frisbie family is scared, so they contact Scotland Yard--which is odd, since they live in America! Regardless, a kilted Bowers soon arrives and tries to get the bottom of these weird happenings. He is totally inept and at his wits end when the punchline appears--and I don't think I should say any more.

The bottom line is that this is a one of a kind visual treat--funny, strange and well worth seeing. And, it's ample proof that they made some great silent comedies and that Bowers was a master.

When a mysterious figure appears to cause a series of disruptions at the Frisbie Home in New York, word goes out to Scotland Yard that the Fuzz-Faced Phantom is at work. Soon, Charley MacNeesha and his assistant MacGregor are sent across the ocean to investigate. But even as they arrive at the home, a new series of weird events begins: full-grown chickens hatch from eggs, pots float across rooms, and pants dance of their own volition.

Charles Bowers was forgotten for decades and his name was notably absent from most histories of the Silent Era... and how is that possible? Once you have seen this film, you will instantly put it up there with all the silent greats: Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Lloyd... maybe his output was smaller (I don't know), but this one film alone is an incredible mash of surrealistic weirdness and stop-motion chicanery. I can't think of anything else in the era that even comes close.

I saw this on TCM.I like good silent comedies, but this is definitely not one of them.It just seemed stupid rather than funny.Naming a ship coming from Scotland the "SS Hoot Mon" is painfully idiotic rather than humorous.Some people can tell even the corniest jokes and make them seem funny;other people just sound boring and tedious. This was definitely the latter. Made you wish for the Three Stooges. Amazing how much trouble someone want to and ended up with nothing.I thought that this would be a very useful tool to show to a film class in college to demonstrate that making a GOOD slapstick film is no where near as easy as it may seem.

This is one of those old silent movies that belong in a class with The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916) or Un Chien Andalou (1928)...it is so weird that it stands out and makes you notice it. This little gem involves a Scot detective, a haunted house, and a very goofy looking Phantom. It's very fast-paced and frantic...much like a Keystone Kops movie with a bit higher level of wit.

If you've never seen Charley Bowers before, here's a great place to start an acquaintance: of all his surviving works, There It Is stands as the fastest, funniest, and most outlandish. Most of Bowers' movies feature impressive stop-motion animation and bizarre special effects, sometimes presented as dream sequences or brief fantasy interludes, but in this film the madness is unconfined, and in the end there's only a half-hearted attempt to explain it all away. From the opening shot There It Is is jam-packed with frightening-yet-funny imagery suggestive of the early "trick films" of Georges Méliès and Ferdinand Zecca, but it also prefigures the more self-conscious, provocative Avant-Gard surrealism of Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau. Unlike the latter filmmakers I don't believe Bowers was especially interested in shocking the bourgeoisie, and yet I get the sense he wasn't just playing for laughs, either. The work of Charley Bowers is funny, but it's funny in a way that startles and disturbs the viewer, and although you may laugh you may also feel a little uneasy.

At any rate, this superlative essay in weirdness is set (or so we're told) at "the mysterious Frisbee home," where serenity has been shattered by a series of strange occurrences. The cook cracks open an egg from which a fully-grown chicken emerges; the butler sees a pair of trousers dancing atop his dresser; and strangest of all, the Fuzz-Faced Phantom makes frequent, inexplicable appearances-- sometimes on wheels --carrying such items as a hat-rack, a broom, a rifle, boxing gloves, or a chunk of ice. The objects aren't strange in themselves, but the phantom himself is an alarming piece of work. The vexed family calls Scotland Yard to investigate. I was delighted to find that, here anyway, Scotland Yard consists of a small yard where the detectives are kilted Scotsmen who march in a tight circle playing bagpipes. (This is Scotland Yard as my inner six year-old wants it to be.) Summoned to the Frisbee home, our hero brings along his assistant, a bug named MacGregor who lives in a match-box. Of course, MacGregor must first retrieve his toothbrush, which is considerably bigger than he is.

Just when you're thinking the tone is on the verge of turning cutesy, however, Charley arrives at the Frisbee home and all hell breaks loose. Or, to be more precise, wild cartoon-like gags are unleashed at a rapid-fire tempo. Paintings come alive within their frames, a child's wagon vanishes through the wall, the cuckoo clock is invaded by a cat (who takes over the cuckoo's job), the telephone rises into the air and turns rubbery, and through it all the Phantom's entrances and exits accelerate. Charley goes to bed and wakes up dangling over the bathtub. MacGregor the animated bug is practically reduced to playing straight man in this setting. At the finale, an "explanation" is offered for some of these phenomena but it doesn't explain a thing, and we don't care: this freaky experience has been entirely too much fun for explanations.

There It Is has recently become available as part of a DVD box set called "More Treasures from American Film Archives." It's a terrific set, and this comedy is one of several gems in the collection. All of Charley Bowers' other surviving movies have been collected and made available in a two-disc set called "Charley Bowers: The Discovery of an American Comic Genius." The over all quality level of Bowers' work is somewhat erratic, but the best of his comedies (such as Now You Tell One and It's a Bird) are delightful, and this film definitely ranks with his most accomplished efforts.