Kid Tricks

Malcolm "Big Boy" Sebastian arose as the star of Educational's kiddie movies towards the end of the silent era. Wearing a large bowler and a wide smile, he always loved his mother and triumphed without any effort over the ill will of nasty people through the ineluctable workings of chance and mechanical comedy props. Some of his short subjects are amusing. This, alas, is not one of them.

Big Boy lives with his mother, a poor and decidedly incompetent seamstress. His wealthy father sends for him to live with him. His housekeeper and her boy immediately dislike him and try to torment him, but every effort turns back on them. These gags might be amusing, were they not so obviously faked. By the end of this rote entry in the series, I was waiting for it to be over. I recommend you never start.

This was another of those Big Boy silent series entries in which the title character visits a house other than his mother's. It's at a much bigger one than the one he's used to but the people there seem not so friendly including a much bigger boy than him. I'll just say this one had lots of movement as well as some trick photography or maybe animated photos is more like it. Many of the gags were pretty impossible but I found it quite amusing for what they were. Oh, and also the intertitles were in two languages other than English and the score is more modern which clashed with the period it was made in. So on that note, I say give Kid Tricks a look.