Cook, Papa, Cook

"Cook, Papa, Cook" is a domestic comedy that is highly reminiscent of the sort of thing that made Charley Chase famous. In fact, the leading man (Henry Murdock) even looks a bit like Charley. Unfortunately, however, the opening and closing credits as well as one brief scene are missing. But the bulk of the film is available.

The film begins with the youngster causing trouble by throwing water on Dad to wake him. Unfortunately, Dad thinks his wife did it and they soon have a crazy water battle. Ultimately, it results in her refusing to make breakfast and Dad being forced to do it for a change. Naturally, he's totally inept at it but tries his best...which isn't saying much. Overall, it's a fair comedy. I say fair because so much of this is familiar but I've seen better versions with more laughs. Just fair. Next time, just watch a Chase film.

Henry Murdock tries to get breakfast while wife wife Lucille Hutton lays abed and their son amuses himself.... and bedevils papa.

It's an amusing one-reeler of the pure destructive variety, starring the unremembered Murdock. He had been a movie comic for a decade and a half, almost always in support, first at Kalem, then at Universal and Christie, always part of the company. He certainly seems capable, a sort of Charley Chase is a perpetual bad mood, whether he's trying to take a bath with too much hot water - something that could only happen in the movies, not in real life - or trying to make toast. He finally seemed to be getting some traction, starring in Jack a white shorts, and a few supporting roles in features. Alas, he died suddenly at only 36 the same year this was made.

This lost film, the last one starring Henry Murdock, just turned up (Feb 2011) in a silent era Kodascope print. Murdock and Hutton are a married couple with a young son. Clearly made quickly and simply -- the son disappears after a few gags at the beginning -- at the end of the silent era, but the gags are inventive throughout.

After oversleeping and then a tiff over waking each other up, Hutton orders Murdock to make HER breakfast for a change. He does so while she lies in bed eating chocolates. After a number of routines in which Murdock fails at slicing bread, toasting it and preparing it, he returns with a breakfast tray...only to find his wife still in bed, throwing up -- and less-than interested in eating anything at all.

This was the last film Murdock made before his death in 1928. Special thanks to film historian Steve Massa for the info and for ID'ing the print, which lacked main titles and credits.

A rare lead role for Henry Murdoch is all that is of note of an otherwise tepid comedy short. He plays a harried husband whose attempts to make breakfast meet with inevitable disaster (he cuts bread the way the rest of us peel an apple, and opens cans with a hatchet). And it looks like he's raising a charming young man, judging by the inordinate amount of pleasure his toddler derives from the constant fighting of his parents.