Mr. Fix-It

Were there two Douglas Fairbanks Seniors?

I am familiar with the lean, athletic, manly swashbuckling version. Seeing Double Trouble and Mr. Fix-It, back-to-back on TCM, I am puzzled where this overweight potato head ''comedy" version came from.

Fairbanks shows little deft as a comedic actor. Sure, he's got frantic movement, as was the style at the time. But none of it works. As a silent-screen actor, he also is unable to sell the comedy with his facial expressions. Frankly, he's a non-entity up there. I'm surprised his career survived.

Whoever convinced him to hit the gym and go another route deserves the same credit as the guy who convinced Tom Hanks to drop his one-note (i.e., shouty) comedy shtick and take on dramatic roles.

Were this not a ''lost" or partially lost Fairbanks film, nobody would give it a second look.

Allan Dwan's Mr. Fix-It unfortunately does not exist in its entirety, but what remains is fantastic. The last print came into the possession of the George Eastman House and was restored (complete with re-written intertitles) in 2010 by students at the Eastman House's Selznick School of Film Preservation, supervised by Ken Fox. Luckily, I was one of the lucky few able to see the restored print projected at the Eastman House on October 2nd, 2012.

What remains of the film, approximately 50 minutes out of an unknown amount, is relatively cohesive. The film climaxes suddenly, and at least one scene is obviously missing (Fairbanks leads a few friends into a room to meet his friend's family and suddenly leaves the room through a different exit, excited that the encounter went so well). Other moments seem sudden, but are by no means confusing. Also, the final shot of the film is lost, but the build-up is there and the final gag is relatively obvious.

The story itself revolves around Dick Remington (Fairbanks), who goes to America in place of his friend, who hasn't been to the states in 15 years. His rich family would surely not approve of his fiancée, who, though by no means poor, is not a member of the elite class that the Burroughs belong to. Remington essentially gets himself into a serious of interactions and, with an endless good attitude, attempts to fix their situations.

The film is quite funny, with a substantial amount of humor coming from Fairbanks' impressive physical ability. Though it sounds like a fairly typical silent comedy (in some ways, it), the film still excels and keeps audiences laughing. The characters are well-developed for a 50 minute film and the plot is similarly intricate. Nonetheless, it all comes together with a typically heartwarming Hollywood ending, done well enough, yet predictable enough, that the missing final shot doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

If this film ever comes to a screen near you, I highly recommend you take the evening to go and see it! Hopefully, by then, more footage will be found, but even if no more is ever found, what's left is still charming.

Leslie Stuart has just been ordered home from England to marry Margaret Landis, on pain of having his allowance cut by 90%. This is a problem. He has just become engaged to Marjorie Daw. No problem, says room mate Douglas Fairbanks. He'll go to America, pass himself off as Stuart, reform three horrid aunts, two horrid uncles, and one butler, rescue Stuart's sister, Katherine MacDonald and Miss Landis from unwanted engagements so they can marry the men they love, save Wanda Hawley and her four or five brothers and sisters from a horrid life, and get a saloonkeeper/disorderly house owner and everyone who works for him thrown in jail. After all, he has 50 minutes in this movie.

It's Fairbanks at his breeziest, confounding snobby upper class people, turning handsprings into bath tubs, climbing from one window to another across the street, and in general behaving like the world's biggest child and having a grand time doing it. He's got Allan Dwan directing, and Dwan had the knack of letting you know his stars were enjoying themselves saving young lovers.