Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Old Time Comedy Classics [Volume One] (1916-1926)

Contents: Injun Trouble (1926) [excerpt from the feature film Hands Up! (1926), Please Excuse Me (1926), The Tin Hoss (1925), Daily Dozens (1926) and Bombs and Brides (1916) [1920 rerelease version as Bombs!].

Injun Trouble (1926), featuring Raymond Griffith, is an 8mm home film sequence excerpt from Hands Up! (1926). Raymond is a spy for the confederacy out to acquire gold for the South.

Please Excuse Me (1926) stars Charles King as a finance company employee who must collect an unpaid-for diamond ring from a mean rowdy [Bud Jamison].

The Tin Hoss (1925) is a film in the Hey Fellas! series of child comedies made to compete with (read: rip off) Roach’s Our Gang series. The fellas proceed to wreck the nighborhood in a hand-built wooden train another kid has built.

Daily Dozens (1926) features Jack Cooper as the janitor in a health club whose owner is looking to cash in on a youth formula.

Bombs and Brides (1916) is chiefly a Charlie Murray and Louise Fazenda comedy with support from Mary Thurman, Wayland Trask, Edgar Kennedy and Al St. John. The new mayor (Harry Booker) of Cootville, Ohio, must deal with graft and corruption in his town. Outraged Italian anarchists plan to blow up the mayor and the town council. There won’t be as much cinematic Italian fury expressed on-screen until Raging Bull (1980).

— Carl Bennett

This DVD collection has been mastered from 8mm and 16mm reduction prints, not always .

Injun Trouble has been transferred from a fair to good 8mm reduction print that lacks the image detail of larger format prints, has some dust and speckling, and some visible print wear.

Please Excuse Me has been prepared from a good to very-good 16mm reduction print. Some footage is lost due to print breakage.

The Tin Hoss comes from a good but worn 8mm reduction print with noticable dust and speckling and exposure variations. This unfunny short is not helped by the low-key music accompanying it.

Daily Dozens has been transferred from a good but worn 8mm reduction print.

Bombs! (1916) has been prepared from a good to very-good 16mm reduction print of the 1920 rerelease version entitled Bombs and Brides. Some scenes’ image highlights are nearly blown-out to a featureless white. The print comes to an abrupt end.

The films are accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting jazzy music recordings that aren’t always appropriate to the film’s action.

Not a great presentation but some of the films only appear on home video here.

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