All Wet is a 1924 American film starring Charley Chase and featuring William Gillespie, 'Tonnage' Martin Wolfkeil and Jack Gavin.[1] It also featured an uncredited appearance of the future star Janet Gaynor in one of her very first roles.[2]
Plot
Jimmie Jump is a boarder who receives an urgent telegram telling him to pick up a large shipment from the train station at exactly 2:30 p.m. the following Wednesday. On the appointed day, Jimmie has great difficulty getting to the station in his Ford Model T: enroute, the vehicle becomes stuck in mud, is sunk in a lake, then torn apart by a tow truck. To add insult to injury, Jimmie is cited for illegal parking. Ironically, he discovers that his errand was performed on the wrong day.[3]
Cast
- Charley Chase as Jimmie Jump
- William Gillespie as the other driver
- 'Tonnage' Martin Wolfkeil as the garage mechanic
- Jack Gavin as the piano mover
- Gale Henry (uncredited)[1]
- Janet Gaynor (uncredited)[1]
- Martha Sleeper (uncredited)[1]
- Olive Borden (uncredited)[4]
Production
All Wet was shot over the course of seven days at Hollenbeck Park, near downtown Los Angeles.[5]
Reception
In a contemporary review of the film, Thomas C. Kennedy wrote, "When it comes to comedy of the clean-cut, theatrically effective sort, there is no surer hand in the realm of short subject specialists than Charles Parrott."[6]
Legacy
The main gag of the car stuck in the watery ditch was remade by Chase in the 1933 talkie short Fallen Arches.[7] In his book, Hooked on Hollywood: Discoveries from a Lifetime of Film Fandom, critic Leonard Maltin wrote that this "hilarious" scene triumphed over the remake partly because "the reality of a talking world couldn't accommodate bizarre or surreal sight gags".[8]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f g h "All Wet". Silent Era. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
- ^ Commire, Anne, ed. (2000). Women in World History. Gale virtual reference library. Vol. 6. Yorkin Publications. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-7876-4068-2. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
- ^ Hooper and Poague, 1980 in Leo McCarey Filmography section, p. 297: Plot summary.
- ^ Vogel, Michelle (2010). Olive Borden: The Life and Films of Hollywood's "Joy Girl". McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-7864-5836-3. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
- ^ Billips, Connie J. (1992). Janet Gaynor: A Bio-Bibliography. Bio-Bibliographies in the Performing Arts. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-313-27574-6. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
- ^ Ward, Richard Lewis (2016). When the Cock Crows: A History of the Pathé Exchange. Southern Illinois University Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-8093-3497-1. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
- ^ S.D., Trav (2013). Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies, From Nickelodeons to Youtube. BookBaby. p. 176. ISBN 978-1-62933-051-8. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
- ^ Maltin, Leonard (2018). Hooked on Hollywood: Discoveries from a Lifetime of Film Fandom. GoodKnight Books. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-7322735-0-4. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
Sources
- Hooper, Gary and Poague, Leland. 1980. Leo McCarey Filmography, in The Hollywood Professionals: Wilder and McCarey, Volume 7. The Tanvity Press, A. S. Barnes and Company, Inc, San Diego, California. pp. 295–314 ISBN 0-498-02181-5
- Poague, Leland. 1980. The Hollywood Professionals: Wilder and McCarey, Volume 7. The Tanvity Press, A. S. Barnes and Company, Inc, San Diego, California. ISBN 0498-02181-5
External links