Wandering Willies (1926)

Two aimless wanderers are hungry and broke. They think of a way to trick a restaurant into giving them a free meal, but their scheme results in them being pursued by both the restaurant ... See full summary »

Director:

Del Lord

Writers:

Al Giebler (titles), Gus Meins (story)

Stars:

Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde, Ruth Hiatt

Cast

Credited cast:
Billy Bevan	...	Percy Nudge
Andy Clyde	...	Dusty Duncan
Ruth Hiatt	...	Ruth
Kewpie Morgan	...	'Rough' Rufus
Dave Morris
Ruth Taylor	...	Girl on park bench
Marvin Loback
Danny O'Shea
Billy Gilbert
Bobby Dunn
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Barney Hellum
William McCall
Marion McDonald
Leo Sulky

Storyline

Two aimless wanderers are hungry and broke. They think of a way to trick a restaurant into giving them a free meal, but their scheme results in them being pursued by both the restaurant owner and the police. Soon, however, they discover that the restaurant owner has a secret of his own, and the tables are turned.

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Genres:

Short | Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

28 March 1926 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mack Sennett Comedies

Technical Specs

Runtime:

20 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The release of the final print was delayed for several weeks because director Del Lord and title writer Al Giebler could not think of a title to serve as a trigger for the ending "Keystone Kops" chase sequence (which has little to do with the film's initial story about two tramps sneaking a meal at a restaurant). In the film, the chase sequence is initiated when the heroine, Ruth Hiatt, finds a paper dropped by the restaurant owner, Kewpie Morgan, and shows the paper to Billy Bevan. Lord and Giebler came up with several titles to motivate the final chase. "He was stealing my diploma as winner of the beauty contest!" "This proves he is President of the Kidnappers' Association!" and "The Big Clam was trying to get a corner on Muscle Shoals!" Finally, Lord came up with the title, "It's the deed to Niagara Falls! We must stop him before he shuts off the water!" He phoned the title in to Giebler at Keystone Studios on the day before the film was to be sent out to distributors.

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Connections

Referenced in Here Come the Co-eds (1945)

User Reviews

Disjointed, But Has Some Good Gags

This Mack Sennett/Billy Bevan short comedy is disjointed, but it has a few pretty good gags that compensate for other stretches of more routine material and for some dated details that mar it a bit. The plot has Bevan and Andy Clyde as two drifters or "Wandering Willies", who get into a series of silly escapades. Director Del Lord epitomizes Sennett's approach to movie-making, and so in typical Sennett style, the segments often barely connect with each other, and it just keeps throwing one gag after another at the viewer, hoping that some of them will connect. In this one, a few of the gags are indeed quite good, and they make it worth watching. It could have been better overall with a more disciplined approach that would do a better job of high-lighting the best material, but that was not Sennett's style.