Country: United States
Language: English
Director: George Jeske
Stars: 'Snub' Pollard, Blanche Mehaffey
and Glenn Tryon
Release Date: 13 January 1924 (USA)
Production Co: Hal Roach Studios
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Genres: Short | Comedy
Inventor Ignatius Pollard develops a new
"Pavement Polisher" to clean the streets, but a demonstration of the
device does not go as planned.
Until recently Snub Pollard was probably
best known for popping up in brief excerpts in silent comedy compilations; his
movies are mostly forgotten. Certainly the guy had a distinctive look, with his
inverted Kaiser Wilhelm mustache and sleepy eyes, and the gags in those
excerpts usually look appealingly surreal and cartoon-y. As the work of Harold
Lloyd has become more readily available on DVD the past few years Pollard has
re-emerged from obscurity as Harold's co-star in numerous comedies made between
1917 and 1920, generally enjoyable films in which Snub alternates as Harold's
buddy or rival. But the biggest boost to Snub's own posthumously recovered
renown as a silent comedy player is the inclusion of his terrific 1923 short
It's a Gift in Kino's "Slapstick Encyclopedia" box set. This gem
stands as Snub's finest hour, or his finest 15 minutes anyway, one of those perfectly
satisfying gag-packed comedies that zips along happily and is funny every time
you see it. Snub played an eccentric inventor who develops a gasoline
substitute (if only he had!), lives in a household filled with Rube
Goldberg-style contraptions, and drives a magnet-powered car that ultimately
turns into a flying machine.
After making this charming film Snub
starred in two-reel comedies for awhile, but returned to the one-reel format
just before making The Big Idea. This film feels like something of a sequel to
It's a Gift: once again, Snub is an inventor who has come up with a potentially
important device, in this case "Pollard's Patent Pavement Polisher,"
basically a street cleaning vehicle the size of a small house. If you take one
look at the thing and figure it'll go haywire in the finale, you win the Kewpie
doll. Snub is assisted by a cross-eyed patent lawyer (played by George Rowe,
the Roach Studio's answer to Ben Turpin) and also has a rival (Glenn Tryon) for
the attention of the Mayor's daughter.
