A Small Town Idol

I recently mentioned Beauty's Worth, which was a 76-minute movie put in a two-hour Silent Sunday Nights time slot. Since there was a fair bit of time left, TCM ran the two-reel short A Small Town Idol.

After introducing all the cast members, a title card points out that this movie was made a long time ago. In fact, it's been edited down from a 1921 feature; I'm not certain how Warner Bros. got the rights to it but that's beside the point.

The plot involves Sam Smith (Ben Turpin), who lives in a small town and like a fair number of people in movies of the era, had a keen interest in Hollywood and its stars. He's engaged to Mary (Phyllis Haver), but wrote fan mail to a Hollywood actress. The studio sent back a production still with a joke comment on it about a marriage proposal. Sam's enemy Jim (Jim Finlayson) finds the still, uses it to get Mary to break off the engagement, and then starts putting the moves on Mary himself!

Sam goes off to Hollywood, where he somehow becomes a star, because however Ben Turpin became a star is a mystery to me. He returns to his hometown to win Mary back, but Jim isn't going to give Mary up without a fight. This having been edited down to a two-reeler, that's about all there is to the plot.

The plot is on the surface certainly serviceable, if hoary. However, Warner Bros.' editing of it ruins the movie (well, I'm assuming it ruins what was a good enough movie; I haven't seen the full-length original). The original having been made in 1921, it is of course silent. So Warner Bros. decided to add not just a narrator, but a Pete Smith-style narrator, and obnoxious sound effects. Perhaps audiences of the day found it funny, but I sure didn't.

The 1939 two-reeler seems to be on Youtube at the moment. There's an out-of-print box set of Ben Turpin movies that includes this one, although I didn't note whether it was the 1921 feature or the two-reeler.