Stepping on the Gas (1920)

[Dino Everett]

I posted this on a film collector forum for someone and thought it might be of interst to folks here if they were unfamiliar with the film since imdb has nothing on it...

STEPPING ON THE GAS (1920) – Regular 8 (silent)



Story by J.C. Cook
Directed by Harry Moody
Produced by J.C. Cook
Sovereign Feature Productions

CAST
John Andrews – Robert Littlefield
Jerome Andrews – Jerome La Gasse
Sir Algie Betterfield – Harry Belmore
Johnny Mack – Kenneth McDonald
Fat Jones – Clifford Cook
Shrimp Adams – Milburn Morante
Clara Smith – Clara Horton
Clara’s Cousin – Madeline Schaeffer
Ima Frost – Georgie O’Dell
Helen Summers – Helen Burrows
Colonel Smith – Milton Fahrney

GENRE – Action / Comedy

SYNOPSIS -
The show opens with John and Jerome Andrews discussing business with Sir Betterfield. The discussion turns to autos and they both mention an interest in the engine that Mack has been working on. So much so that Betterfield runs straight over to Mack’s garage and works out a deal to buy the engine. At the same time Mack’s buddies Fat and Shrimp run over to the Colonel’s house for a play rehearsal?......OK, whatever……While at the house Shrimp and his girl overhear the Andrews’ planning to steal the plans for the engine. A mad dash over to Mack’s ensues with Mack on foot reaching the garage before Shrimp and the Colonel who drive. A fight between Mack and Jerome breaks out when Mack finds him in the office, this transfers over to the cars, and a nice long road race follows. The cars eventually stop and the fist fight starts up again in time for Shrimp to arrive and help bring the bad guys to justice. The show ends with all of the happy couples getting married but Shrimp seems to have some reservations…Oh well!

PERSONAL REVIEW -
The comedy shows up mostly during the titles and Shrimps joyride to help Mack. The character of Ima Frost is basically comic relief. Overall not the greatest of comedies, but not the worst either. Milburn is not recognizable enough as a comic to have two looks (he starts with a bowler hat, and then takes the hat off for the inside scenes), if there were less characters this would not be a problem but they spend so much time introducing characters, it gets hard to keep everyone straight considering this is just a 2 reeler. The whole action switch between the auto garage to the play rehearsal leaves a lot of questions, since it did not have a natural transition like most 2 reel comedies which would have had 1 reel focus on the car stuff, and then the second reel at the house, this sticks the house in the middle. I did enjoy the Griffith homage when they were racing to the garage and the director chose to do so by alternating 3-way cross cutting. The Georgie O'Dell cross dressing Flora Finch-esque character is funny albeit brief. Thankfully the titles look original, but I’m not sure who put this title out.

REGULAR 8
Enjoyment – 6 out of 10
Print : B
Color : B/W
Focus : slightly soft
Contrast : low, probably a one-light
Sound : silent

stepincast.jpg (109.96 KiB) Viewed 14883 times

stepincast.jpg (109.96 KiB) Viewed 14883 times

[Steve Massa]

Hi Dino
Thanks for posting all the info and great scans. I've seen this one and another, HEY DIDDLE, DIDDLE with Morante, Cook, and MacDonald. In that one the trio plays three army buddies who re-unite after W.W I and start a taxi service. Don't if there were any more, as I've never come across any info on them. The 1920 date seems possibly a little early, as the films look more like mid-20s.

Steve

[Steve Massa]

Hi Dino
I have re-do my previous post. After checking my notes I've found that I've seen a third film in this series, OVER HERE, and that's the one where the trio starts the taxi business.

I have found some info on the FIAF Treasures from the Film Archives database. This was a 1927 series called THE FIGHTING ADVENTURER, and there were at least 7 entries - all directed by Harry Moody and produced by Sovereign. Don't know exactly where STEPPING ON THE GAS fits into group, but others are:

OVER HERE #1
AFTER DARK #2
UP IN THE AIR #3
HEY DIDLE, DIDDLE #7

Steve

[Dino Everett]

Yes the later date makes more sense, the 1920 date was on the film can when I rec'd it, but would make sense at 1927 for the others in the series and especially the looks of everyone in the film .

[Frank Flood]

I have these eight titles that were produced with the involvement of something called Sun Pictures and released on the states rights market in 1927:

1. DOWN TO THE SEA IN CABS
2. GOLDEN SHACKLES
3. HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE
4. OUTSIDE INN
5. SHERLOCK RIVALS (OR SHERLOCK’S RIVAL)
6. STEPPING ON THE GAS
7. THAT NIGHT
8. THREE FACES WEST

There are some indications that HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE was released in 1925, but that is probably not correct. I didn’t have time to look this weekend, but I think there is a reference to DOWN TO THE SEA IN CABS that also mentions Kenneth McDonald in Lahue and Gill's Clown Princes and Court Jesters in the article about Milburn Morante. From my spotty materials, it looks like OVER HERE and UP IN THE AIR are part of a different group of films produced or released or somethinged by Sam Efrus at about the same time. Same cast, different company? Certainly possible.

Was there a series name connected to these films? Is this the same Kenneth McDonald that appeared in Columbia comedies twenty years later?

Frank

[Steve Massa]

Hi guys
From what I've seen of these films they seem to be emulating the Al Cooke / Kit Guard / Alberta Vaughn type of series like The Telephone Girls, The Wisecrackers, The Pacemakers, Racing Blood, etc., that were done variously for R-C, FBO, and Darmour. What I mainly remember is that they weren't really funny.

Steve

[Frank Flood]

The, or a, series name for these films was THE FORTUNE HUNTERS. I think there were at least 12 titles in the series (very much like several Witwer / FBO series). Sam Efrus, who was also making LIGHTNIN' THE POLICE DOG features as a low-rent Rin-Tin-Tin at about the same time, was responsible.

Isn't it amazing how many not very funny (though maybe fascinating) bottom-of-the-barrel independent comedies survived vis-a-vis say the Lloyd Hamiltons or Sunshines.

Frank

[Richard M Roberts]

The, or a, series name for these films was THE FORTUNE HUNTERS. I think there were at least 12 titles in the series (very much like several Witwer / FBO series). Sam Efrus, who was also making LIGHTNIN' THE POLICE DOG features as a low-rent Rin-Tin-Tin at about the same time, was responsible.

Isn't it amazing how many not very funny (though maybe fascinating) bottom-of-the-barrel independent comedies survived vis-a-vis say the Lloyd Hamiltons or Sunshines.

Frank

The survival rate on independent features and shorts is due mainly to their form of distribution (the "states-rights" model). Rather than these films being handled by a specific studio-run distributor, they were sold to various distributors who handled "territories", and frequently, these films were not returned to these distributors once they had outlived their runs. So when piles of nitrate films are found in barns, basements, or old theaters and the like, it's a good chance they will come from an independent studio like Rayart, Syndicate, Davis, what have you, rather than MGM, Paramount, Fox, etc., who tightly handled their prints, returned them to their exchanges after exhibition, and destroyed them.

Then it was up to the individual studios, and their own attitudes towards preservation of their product, as to what is still with us. This is why there is little Universal Silent product around, because they dumped all their silent negs in the Ocean in the 1940's, and all we have is whatever managed to escape exchange return, frequently a foreign print, or what was released in "Show-at-Home" editions on the home market. Fox had a major East-Coast vault fire in 1937, which also destroyed the Educational Picture negs, so Lloyd Hamilton is a rare commodity as welll as the Sunshine Comedies. MGM was a bit better at preserving their old material, but they had vault fires and decomp to deal with too, so there are a lot of gaps there.

So a lot of what comes down to us today is mostly due to luck, a stray print that didn't get returned, or was stolen, or something that escaped destruction by accident. Or, in the rare case of the Brother Weiss, owners of the product who were determined to keep making a buck in some way out of everything they ever shot. In any event, it's a very arbitrary survival rate, and we're lucky to have what we have.


RICHARD M ROBERTS