The Uncovered Wagon (1923) User Reviews

It's funny but seems very incomplete.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 20 June 2011]

This film stars James Parrott--a guy who has unfortunately forgotten today. It's a shame, as he was a decent comedian and a great director for Hal Roach Studios (in particular, directing the likes of Laurel & Hardy). And, most would not know that he was the brother of the more famous comic, Charley Chase.

Unfortunately, while I enjoyed "The Uncovered Wagon" and laughed a few times, I also felt that much of it was missing. The end, in particular, seems to happen pretty much randomly. This is NOT uncommon, as older films were made on nitrate stock--which quickly degraded and even caught fire rather easily.

The film is about a VERY anachronistic group of pioneers heading west--in Model T Fords. The attacking Indians ride bikes and the whole things is funny and weird. Lots of nice sight gags and laughs....but it all abruptly ends and made little sense...but made me laugh.

Funny Spoof from Hal Roach

[Michael_Elliott · 17 March 2011]

Uncovered Wagon, The (1923)

*** (out of 4)

Hal Roach short is a spoof of the 1923 Western COVERED WAGON, which was a huge hit for Paramount. In this film a group of people are heading out West to Hollywood so they pack up their "wagons" and head out where they must battle various elements including crossing a dangerous river and battling Indians. The "wagons" are actually cars with a cover on them and the Indians even ride in on bicycles so you can tell the type of humor that Roach is going for. Seeing so many "modern" items in this Western set in 1840 actually makes the film rather surreal and I must admit it kept me interested and entertained through its 14-minutes. James Parrott plays the main guy who is trying to look impressive to a girl (Katherine Grant) he's in love with. Parrott wasn't the greatest comic out there but it fit the role good enough. Grant would later go onto star in several Charley Chase pictures who of course was the brother of Parrott. Noah Young is also on hand and makes for a fun character. One of the highlights of the film is where they're trying to cross the river, which of course turns out to be too deep and the cars go right to the bottom. We get a rather funny sequence of Parrott at the bottom trying to fix the car and we get several other nice gags as the cars go under water only to then come back up. The Indian's riding in on their bikes was pretty funny too.

The broad and the close - a tale of two parodies

[kekseksa · 12 November 2017]

Will Rogers would produce Two Wagons: Both Covered, his brilliant close-parody of Cruze's The Covered Wagon in 1924 but Roach had already produced this much broader parody which relies almost entirely on the increasingly popular use of anachronism. So the wagon-train consists of Fords and the Indians attack on bicycles (including a penny-farthing and a double-tandem) while reinforcement arrive by car and by train. The cycling Indians are rather splendid and the fording of the river - the central episode in the original film - is pleasantly absurd but otherwise it is mainly about people getting shot by arrows in the bum and it is only moderately here and there. Not a patch however on the Rogers film.