Only the second reel of this 1918 Jester comedy is known to survive. The first half, in which it is established that Marcel Perez (known as "Twede-Dan" here as opposed to his other numerous screen aliases,including "Tweedie, Tweedledum", "Bungles", "Robinet" and, I suspect, Julia Swayne Gordon) is a private eye who has decided that Nilda Baracchi is a German spy. He follows her hither and yon and the gags are mostly about his ability to disguise himself as a railroad porter, an armchair or a pile of discarded newspapers at a moment's notice.
Perez' gag construction was topnotch. In this one he had successfully melded his repertoire of gags from his Italian movies with an American style of storytelling. Credit director Wiliam Seiter, near the start of his half-century directorial career, but already a tried veteran.
Anyway, keep your eyes ope for the first reel. If the second is any indication, it's a lot of fun. And if you want to check it out for yourself, get yourself a copy of THE MARCEL PEREZ COLLECTION.
Perez' gag construction was topnotch. In this one he had successfully melded his repertoire of gags from his Italian movies with an American style of storytelling. Credit director Wiliam Seiter, near the start of his half-century directorial career, but already a tried veteran.
Anyway, keep your eyes ope for the first reel. If the second is any indication, it's a lot of fun. And if you want to check it out for yourself, get yourself a copy of THE MARCEL PEREZ COLLECTION.
