Beauty and the Bump

This was another silent comedy short that I watched on the "American Slapstick" DVD. It's produced by the Bray Company which usually is associated with animation. The players are all people I've never heard of and considering it's only fitfully amusing, maybe it's for the best. There are some funny scenes I've haven't seen in movies of this era like when the handsome man throws his ice cream over his shoulder on a ride that goes high, the "villian" gets it in his face and thinks it's birds poop based on the flock he sees above! Or when this handsome man uses the mallet to bring himself up on that thing that goes up to the bell so he can sit on there for a while. There's also one more gag I liked in the beginning when this handsome man, in order to impress this pretty woman, gets out of the door of the high ride forgetting it's still going on with the results of him hanging for dear life! Then there's some female masquerade and some attempts to get a bump (don't ask) that were quite amusing. Despite that, Beauty and the Bump was hardly a memorable short. Still, it's worth a look for any silent buffs out there.

This is a not especially funny comedy about two lovers who antagonize a baddie and are pursued by him throughout the film. None of the knockabout humor seemed that interesting and it's easy to see how the stars never became household names! The only interesting thing about the film seemed to come completely out of left field. When the guy asks the lovely lady to marry him, she says she must check his "bump of eugenics"! In other words, determine if he's worthy of propogating a new generation based on phrenology!! While eugenics (think Aryan ideals) were popular in the 1920s, phrenology was the long-abandoned "science" of interpreting intelligence and personality traits based on skull shape and bumps (again, much like the work of Nazi eugenics "science"). Really weird and inappropriate stuff here, folks! However, none of it is funny and only weird.

While I love silent comedies, this seems to be quite forgettable and only of interest to academicians interested in studying the history of eugenics.