La poudre miraculeuse

Douglas MacLean returns to his home town in Iowa, to take over the drug store his late father ran. Times are changing, and the store hasn't. There's a new chain drug store opening right across the street from his, owned by the father of the girl he loves, Marian de Beck. To compete, he recalls his father had spent decades trying to compound a panacea. Grinding together ginger, charcoal, Fuller's Earth and pepsin, he announces his great discovery just before the chain drug store opens. So great is the power of suggestion, that no symptom seems proof against this quack nostrum. It's a funny, quick silent comedy.

Douglas MacLean was a light leading comic, first for Ince, then releasing his own productions through Paramount. Like most of the light comedians of the era, Doug played an ordinary man, whose behavior was just a bit odd; in this one, MacLean's thoughts seem to linger a bit too long, leaving him to rush to catch up to whatever problem he faces at the moment. In dress and behavior, he seems much like Douglas Fairbanks at this stage of his career, if definitely more cynical.

MacLean continued his career starring as the young go-getter in his own productions, through the end of the silent era. Then, facing the fact that he had aged out of the role at 40, he switched to writing and producing comedies for other performers through the early 1940s. He would die in 1967, aged 77.

Like many a skilled and interesting star of the silent era, MacLean has fallen out of the consciousness not just of the public, but of the film buff. Happily, Ben Model, working with the Library of Congress has just issued this movie and MacLean's BELL BOY 13 on dvd, with one of his happy scores.