All Wet (1924 film)
1924 film
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
All Wet is a 1924 American film starring Charley Chase and featuring William Gillespie, 'Tonnage' Martin Wolfkeil and Jack Gavin.[1] It also featured an uncredited appearance of the future star Janet Gaynor in one of her very first roles.[2]
| All Wet | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Leo McCarey |
| Produced by | Hal Roach |
| Starring | Charley Chase |
| Cinematography | Len Powers[1] |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Pathé Exchange[1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 10 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | Silent film English intertitles |
Plot
Jimmie Jump is a boarder who receives an urgent telegram telling him to pick up a large shipment from the train station at exactly 2:30 p.m. the following Wednesday. On the appointed day, Jimmie has great difficulty getting to the station in his Ford Model T: enroute, the vehicle becomes stuck in mud, is sunk in a lake, then torn apart by a tow truck. To add insult to injury, Jimmie is cited for illegal parking. Ironically, he discovers that his errand was performed on the wrong day.[3]
Cast
- Charley Chase as Jimmie Jump
- William Gillespie as the other driver
- 'Tonnage' Martin Wolfkeil as the garage mechanic
- Jack Gavin as the piano mover
- Gale Henry (uncredited)[1]
- Janet Gaynor (uncredited)[1]
- Martha Sleeper (uncredited)[1]
- Olive Borden (uncredited)[4]
Production
All Wet was shot over the course of seven days at Hollenbeck Park, near downtown Los Angeles.[5]
Reception
In a contemporary review of the film, Thomas C. Kennedy wrote, "When it comes to comedy of the clean-cut, theatrically effective sort, there is no surer hand in the realm of short subject specialists than Charles Parrott."[6]
Legacy
The main gag of the car stuck in the watery ditch was remade by Chase in the 1933 talkie short Fallen Arches.[7] In his book, Hooked on Hollywood: Discoveries from a Lifetime of Film Fandom, critic Leonard Maltin wrote that this "hilarious" scene triumphed over the remake partly because "the reality of a talking world couldn't accommodate bizarre or surreal sight gags".[8]