Galloping Bungalows

Mack Sennett's staff came up with this satire of the Florida land boom of the 1920s with a series of gags based on actual cases -- people did buy and sell lots that turned out to be underwater, as they "flipped" their properties without ever knowing they were being swindled. The whole thing collapsed and a hurricane went through downtown Miami. Such a thing could never happen again -- at least until 2008, when I failed to argue my sister out of a sure-fire deal in Tampa. Ay, wheel.

The movie starts in an erratic manner with Billy Bevan, playing a John Phillip Sousa knockoff, getting married for his mustache and ends in a typical Sennett fashion with a bungalow being chased by a firetruck. It's a typically good Sennett comedy from the era.

Billy was one of the large number of Australian clowns who had substantial roles in silent movies and subsided into bits in sound movies, usually playing a Cockney cabbie. In the 1920s he was a lead utility lead for Sennett in a lot of pictures.

Galloping Bungalows (1924)

** (out of 4)

Lesser film from Mack Sennett has a rich woman placing an ad in the paper saying that she will marry whatever man has the best mustache in town. Billy Bevan "wins" the contest but soon he's causing all sorts of chaos starting with him trying to buy a house by the beach. GALLOPING BUNGALOWS is the perfect example of a Sennett comedy that features a story that makes no sense but instead of a story we're given various wild chases. I really wouldn't call this film good but at the same time I can understand why fans of Sennett might really eat this thing up. There's no question that there are some pretty wild stunts going on here including one sequence where a fire truck is going down the street with the back cart sliding all over the road from side to side. I couldn't help but think that something similar to this would happen decades later in TERMINATOR 3. I also thought the opening bits had a few nice ideas dealing with the mustaches but for some reason this didn't play too much into the film. At 20-minutes I thought there were plenty of places where the thing just dragged very badly and there's no question that there's not enough laughs to make it work.

"Galloping Bungalows" is a strange little comedy that, fortunately, gets a bit better near the end. It begins with a rich lady announcing in the paper that she will marry a man with a cool mustache--and tons of men apply. However, the man who wins the lady is in for a laugh, as it's not her that is the heiress but her daughter. Next, you see some sharpies cheat the guy when he goes to buy a house. Finally, there is a madcap scene involving a firetruck that finally IS worth seeing.

The film suffers from three distinctly separate plots--none of which really work together. It also suffers because most of it isn't very funny. Fortunately, the firetruck bit is good and it appears as if they built the truck specifically for films, as I doubt ANY truck really acts that way! It makes for some great chase scenes and the film ended on a good note---though overall this Sid Smith and Billy Bevan film is pretty flat.

By the way, when the bungalow is blowing in the wind, look closely and you'll see the strings pulling it back and forth! A bit sloppy.

The appearance of kid actor Coy Watson Jr. As a newsboy was the reason I decided to watch this film. He would, as an adult, film many of the "Erskine Johnson's Hollywood Reel" episodes featuring many movie stars in home movie-like footage for in-between shorts before and after various TV shows. I saw many of those on AMC (American Movie Classics). In this one, well, lots of things happen but the most amusing, if not completely hilarious, thing in this short is a firefighter chase after a moving house with various twists and turns, the kind one expects in these silent movies. One shouldn't be surprised Mack Sennett was responsible for this one, so on that note, Galloping Bungalows is worth a look for anyone interested in these sorts of things.