In Again, Out Again

'In Again, Out Again' was Douglas Fairbanks's first film for his own production company (Artcraft) but it finds him doing pretty much the same comedy he was doing for other producers: contrived slapstick, with set-piece occasions to show off his athletic prowess. Front-rank stardom would not come for Fairbanks until he learnt to soft-pedal the comedy in favour of swashbuckling.

Here we have a 1917 comedy that's very much in tune with the politics of its time. Fairbanks's character is named Teddy Rutherford, and he shares the jingo expansionist politics of Teddy Roosevelt, with a dash of Rutherford Hayes. Unfortunately, he comes up against a family of pacifists cried Jennings. An insert shot of the centrepiece in their home -- a very large photo of William Jennings Bryan, with much smaller portraits of Lincoln and Washington -- told audiences in 1917 all they needed to know about this clan's sympathies.

The cleverest character name in the film is that worn by the burglar played by Bull Montana. His calling card (burglars have calling cards?) identifies him as Quentin Auburn, a clever play on the names of two Stateside prisons. There's also a good joke about Sing Sing.

Sadly, the leading lady in this comedy is Arline Pretty, whom I've never found particularly pretty nor appealing in any other way.

I was astonished by one sequence in which Fairbanks goes to his local dispensary (drugstore) and asks the chemist for a shot of rye whisky. This lurk was common in the USA during Prohibition, when druggists were the only people legally allowed to dispense alcoholic drinks (for prescription only). But this film was released in 1917, a couple of years BEFORE the Volstead Act. When did American druggists start selling 'snake-bite' medication? I'll rate 'In Again, Out Again' 7 out of 10: its biggest appeal will be for Fairbanks fans.