The Nut

Douglas Fairbanks so embodied the ideal young American male of his day: honest, gallant, athletic, charming, and perhaps anti-intellectual. Ideas didn't propel him in the movies (though he's a clever inventor in this one), action did. In this transitional silent feature, he still has the light-comedian identity that made him a star in the 1910s, but he's doing more stunts and working his way toward the action-hero persona that propelled him through the 1920s. The trouble here is, in the title role, he really is a nut--callous and deceptive toward his girlfriend, impractical in all things, and incapable of learning anything. The villain, William Lowery, is a good one, a handsome charmer whose perfidy is convincing, and there are also glimpses of United Artists allies Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford in a party sequence. But, as another poster notes, it's never certain whether it's an actioner or a comedy, and Fairbanks doesn't even look his best. And I know we have to suspend a lot of disbelief with these silent comedies, but I'm surprised to learn from this film that 1) wax dummies can persuasively impersonate real human beings for extended periods, 2) cops can arrest you with no evidence, and 3) all it takes to be married is a judge, never mind the license or blood test.

Prior to releasing his Alexander Dumas-inspired movie, Fairbanks wasn't quite ready to give up his familiar trademark comedies yet. Just before he embarked on "The Three Musketeers," he took one last stab at pure comedy, releasing his March 1921's "The Nut." Fairbanks is a wacky inventor with a love interest two-floors above him who's interested in seeking for indigent kids to be housed in rich people's mansions. The entire plot is his attempt to get real and/or fake millionaires to support her vision.

One scene in "The Nut" caused the public confusion. Fairbanks pretends to dress in several historical characters behind a screen in the blink of the eye to amuse his beau's partygoers. A Charlie Chaplin lookalike emerges as one of the famous people. Remarkably, viewers were convinced he was the real Tramp, despite being taller than the shorter comedian.

Fairbanks most likely got a premonition that he should give up funny motion pictures when filming a stunt that appears towards the end of "The Nut." He's seen jumping out of a window onto a man walking on the sidewalk. But the actor landed on his arm, breaking his hand and injuring his back. Reports had Fairbanks recovering in the hospital for five weeks, but he was seen the next day at the studio posing for photographs with several people. Whatever the truth was, Fairbanks never returned to pure comedy after "The Nut," discovering his new niche in adventure costume movies was geared more to his more mature aspirations.

The Nut was a mildly fun, meandering and overly long movie. It starts very strong with clever title cards, some unusual situations, and lots of the Fairbanks personality. Doug is a wealthy inventor whose sometimes clever and sometimes odd devices get plenty of attention. He loves Estrell (Marguerite De La Motte), a wealthy woman who wants to save all of the poor slum children from poverty by placing them with wealthy families.

When it starts to wander away from the main story, and I lost interest in this film. If you're a big fan of the Fairbanks personality, it might see you through but I found it to be tedious. When the story finds its way back to the fold, it is almost too late, but there are a few laughs in between and a sufficient ending.

This lightweight vehicle proved to be the last comedy Douglas Fairbanks would produce before turning exclusively to swashbuckler roles. Viewers familiar with Doug only as Zorro or D'Artagnan may be surprised to find him in a contemporary farce, playing the sort of zany young millionaire we associate more strongly with Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton. And indeed, the opening sequence of this movie is right out of a Keaton comedy, as Doug, playing wealthy inventor Charlie Jackson, goes through his morning ritual of awakening, bathing, and dressing with the help of several bizarre gadgets of his own devising. This is pure silent comedy and a fun intro, amusingly summed up with a title reading: "Maybe necessity is the mother of invention -- but the father of these is a nut." And Charlie Jackson is definitely eccentric and woefully accident prone, but basically a good sort. The object of Charlie's affection is Estrell, a well-meaning young lady who has taken an interest in slum children. Estrell believes that taking poor kids into "refined" homes for an hour or two of play each day will make them better citizens. (The filmmakers express reservations about Estrell's theory in a mildly sarcastic title card, but however naive she may be, we're given to understand that Estrell, like Charlie, has a good heart.) The plot revolves around Charlie's increasingly desperate attempts to interest wealthy patrons in Estrell's idea, while also thwarting the attentions of a villainous gambler who feigns interest in order to have his way with the girl.

There are a number of comic high points, including another Keatonesque moment when Doug, who has lost his clothes in public and is stripped down to his underwear, manages to cover himself with a "suit" sliced out of a billboard advertising a men's clothing store. There are also some amusing moments involving wax dummies stolen from a museum, a suspenseful sequence in which Doug crawls through the pipes of a building's heating system, and a funny gag during a fistfight in the lobby of a movie theater. But perhaps the most memorable bit is one that occurs during a party sequence, early on. Doug gives a performance for his guests which consists of ducking behind a screen and re-emerging dressed as various famous historical personalities such as Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, General Grant, etc. Actually the stunt is faked, and this is revealed when the screen is accidentally knocked over and we see several startled actors standing by, already in costume for their roles. But there's one we haven't seen before, a Charlie Chaplin impersonator who goes into a brief imitation of the comedian before he is hustled off the stage. There has been some controversy over whether this impersonator might actually have been played by Chaplin (a close friend of Doug's off-camera), cleverly disguised in a Tramp outfit that doesn't look quite right; that is, the man himself playing a second-rate imitator. Several film historians have questioned whether this really is Chaplin, and it would seem that it is not, though the very notion of such a gag is an appealing one.

Over all I'd say The Nut is a pleasant and amusing light comedy, well worth a look for silent film buffs. For me, the main drawback is the personality of Doug's character: with his combination of high enthusiasm and ineptitude, Charlie Jackson gets a little exasperating after a while, and requires more patience from the viewer than similar characters played by Keaton or Lloyd. Even so, he redeems himself in the finale, ties up all the loose plot strands, wins the girl, and leaves us satisfied at the fade-out. What more can we ask of a movie hero?

Douglas Fairbanks had already begun his transition to more prestigious, historical costume swashbucklers, for which he is best remembered, with his previous film, "The Mark of Zorro" (1920), but, apparently, unsure as to the success of that transition, he made one last modern comedy, this film, "The Nut". Reportedly, the success of "The Mark of Zorro" and the comparable failure of "The Nut" solidified the transition. Indeed, I agree that "The Nut" is one of the lesser Fairbanks comedies I've seen; certainly, it suffers in comparison to his earlier ones, including "The Matrimaniac" (1916), "Wild and Woolly" (1917), "His Majesty, the American", "When the Clouds Roll by" (both 1919) and "The Mystery of the Leaping Fish" (1916), which are among my favorites and seem to be considered among his best by others, as well.

This is not a bad film, though; after all, Fairbanks, it seemed, was effortlessly charming and amusing, although he admitted this was one of his more lackluster performances. In this one, he plays a foolhardy inventor who is desperate to win the affections of the leading lady. There's an opening sequence where his inventions carry him out of bed, help him bathe and dress, which is similar to the use of absurd inventions for comedic effect in some of Buster Keaton's films and in some other slapstick comedies by others. This use of inventions isn't used throughout the picture, though. As with much of this film, it seems the gags and story lines are quickly dispensed with as soon as they've served their comedic purpose. Consequently, "The Nut" seems sketchy. The episodes with the stolen wax figures and the tiresome joke of having cupid and the devil as telephone operators are further demonstrations of this flaw. As Jeffrey Vance said (in the biography "Douglas Fairbanks", excerpts of which are included in the Flicker Alley booklet), "The picture is like a chaotic funhouse, filled with magical masquerades, illusions, and gimmicks of great momentary amusement. However, the material is in dire need of a cohesive plot—or at least a clear perspective—to make it truly enjoyable." Additionally, there are some funny intertitles, especially near the beginning, which directly address or talk directly to viewers; this sort of title writing had been one of the more clever aspects of Fairbanks's comedies since his teaming with Anita Loos on "His Picture in the Papers" (1916). And, there's some multiple-exposure trick photography for the "X-Ray", see-through-view of Doug climbing through a vent during the climax. Regardless, most of Fairbanks's films seem to have been better than this.

(Note: Charlie Chaplin doesn't play the Chaplin imitator here, which should be obvious to viewers familiar with Chaplin. According to Vance, Chaplin, however, did have an extra role as a passerby, minus the tramp attire, but, apparently, that scene was edited out. Mary Pickford also had an extra part as a party guest.)