Camera Shy

From February 1930, this early-sound Educational comedy short stars Lloyd Hamilton and has an odd structure to it, evidence of some of the new chances taken in the first years of sound comedy shorts. Hamilton begins by looking in a restaurant window at people eating (echoes of the Hamilton silent classic MOVE ALONG, perhaps?). He then wanders over to a film set on the street with a stereotypical leading man, leading lady, and director. The leading man is too wimpy to fire a gun during a fight and is fired. The film crew takes a break, which allows Hamilton (who had been disrupting the shoot with sarcastic comments) to approach the director and tell him and other members of the crew various stories starring himself that he feels would make good films in which he could star. Each of these stories is shown as a short within a short. They take place in the "Dear old south" of Hamilton's youth, he says, and for me they are all not very funny. The frame story of the filmmakers is much more funny. Still, the short within a short concept is interesting and the short is certainly not static the way that so many 1930 shorts and features are. Not one of Hamilton's best, but not bad either.