I saw this silent British comedy at Cinefest 2006 in Liverpool, New York. There was some murmuring in the (mostly American) audience when somebody spotted the name of this movie's production company in the credits: Swastika Films. Don't worry, folks. In 1919, Germany's National Socialist movement hadn't got started yet, and the swastika had not yet been co-opted by Nazis. In fact, the British government had set up a national health-insurance and savings scheme, and they needed a simple and distinctive image to put on the depositors' passbooks ... so they chose the swastika. During this same period, Rudyard Kipling's publisher was issuing Kipling's novels with a suavastika (an anti-clockwise swastika) on the covers. For audiences in British cinemas in 1919, the swastika had only favourable associations.
'Bamboozled' stars Fred Rains as an Alley Sloper-ish character who takes his girlfriend Gladys to the park in hopes of a quick snog, but they can never get a bench alone together. A young spiv named Priceless Percy offers a solution involving a mechanical woman. What happens is completely implausible but reasonably funny.
Fred Rains was a long-time stage actor who bore a marked resemblance to his son, none other than Claude Rains. At the time when 'Bamboozled' was made, Claude Rains had already begun a stage career of his own, but would soon settle down as a dramatics teacher (John Gielgud being one of his students) before trying his luck in Hollywood. The slapstick acting demonstrated by Fred Rains here in 'Bamboozled' is a far cry from his son Claude's subtle demeanour, but Claude had the benefit of sound films to display his magnificent voice. I'll rate 'Bamboozled' 4 out of 10, mostly for its historic value.