Flicker Fever

Mack Sennett is known mostly for his slapstick comedies he made at Keystone Studios in the 1910s. However, he eventually lost the studio and was forced to find work elsewhere...landing at Educational Pictures where he made various short comedies. A few of these were pretty good...most seemed to be second-rate and very little like his earlier work. "Flicker Fever" is among the last films he made at Educational.

The story is about the Adams family and the father (George Chandler) trying to get his daughters into films. But after moving to California, they've sat for six months and have had no job offers. Suddenly, out of the blue, Incredible Pictures calls and says they would like to see the oldest daughter, Agnes, as soon as possible. So dad goes looking for her at a pool party...and thoroughly makes a mess of everything. But what about his youngest? What are her prospects?

There are two huge problems with this film. First, it's really not funny and the writing was disappointing. Second, these two 'talented' girls really aren't all that talented. Watching both do imitations of famous stars was not all that satisfying. The youngest was pretty good with her impersonations, though I found it creepy that this 8 year-old (give or take a year) was impersonating Mae West...a character about as child unfriendly as you could find back in 1935. Seeing the child sashaying about trying to look sexy is just creepy...much like Educational Pictures "War Babies" where they made 3 year-old Shirley Temple a sexy vamp! Today, this sort of thing just makes you think how much pedos would love the films! As for the older daughter, her impersonation of Zasu Pitts was pretty good but the rest, especially her impersonations of male actors, were god-awful at best. All in all, a film that left me wondering what happened to the humor. After all, it was supposed to be a comedy but wasn't and featured some routines that really didn't show off these talented kids' talents to their fullest.

George Chandler takes his three daughters out to Hollywood, figuring they're cinches to become stars. Six months later, they're not.

Mack Sennett had lost his studio by this point, and was making this for Educational Pictures, with a lot of it shot by the pool in his estate. Although his films had been in decline since the coming of sound, he was also beset by the general economics of the industry. Sound pictures were a lot more expensive, and the techniques that looked good in silent comedy didn't translate well at the realistic speeds demanding by the newer medium. Tired scripts, and a declining box office take meant that the major studios began producing their own short comedies, further cutting into grosses. Roach would abandon short subjects the following year, Educational would be folded into 20th Century-Fox in 1939, and the Christies would be absorbed into Paramount.

Not that a poor film like this could help. Two of the girls do poor imitations of movie and radio personalities, Kenneth Howell falls into a pool, and there a couple of automobile crashes that happen too quickly to admit of any humor.

Sennett would produce and direct three more shorts over the next year, then give up.