Series: Beatrice LaPlante

Director:
Producer: Hal Roach
Titles: H.M. Walker
Photography:
Editor:

Stars: Beatrice LaPlante
Company: Pathé Exchange
Released: 13 June 1920
Length: 1 reel
Production No.: G-4
Filming dates: March 22-25, 1920
Rating: 0/10


Start The Show

Available on DVD:
 

The film begins with what I presume to be a landlord waving some mortgage papers in the faces of a couple outside their home, before we see their daughter Beatrice wildly demonstrating the contents of a book to a guy by a well. He tries to duck her swining arms but ends up falling backwards into the well. Just then a travelling troupe for a show in town rolls by and stops by the house and a man asks Beatrice for directions to Town Hall. She abruptly points him in the right direction and then decides to put on a show in their barn in order to raise the mortgage. So the actors, many of whom appear from nowhere, start setting up their stuff in the barn meanwhile Beatrice recruits a couple dozen people from town who are gathered to hear a lecture. She takes them back to the barn to show them a blind pig. Yes, seriously.
The people are all given tickets to watch the show whilst back stage Beatrice counts up her money. One of the actors tries to steal the money from her every time he distracts her but she has the same idea. She slides the money down her stocking, which he grabs through a hole but she also lifts his percentage of the cash from his pocket, and ends up at an advantage. On stage a woman calls for lightning from the props department whilst she parades around holding a dummy baby. Well, the audience seem to find her funny at least. A crying black man then stuffs a chicken into his jacket (seriously what the fuck is going on with this bullshit?) The landlord suddenly appears and starts throwing his weight around and instructs the owner that he is going to foreclose. Beatrice falls off a chair (see favourite bit), gets back up, jumps on the landlord's back, he swings her around, grabs her arse and then pins her up on a fence. A fight breaks out with the landlord and some guy before Beatrice swings from the rafters and kicks the landlord into a water trough before handing him the money for the mortgage.

Favourite bit
With absolutely nothing whatsoever to take from this utter pile of abysmal crap of a movie, I am going to have to say the shot of Beatrice LaPlante falling backwards off a chair whith her legs wide open. I'm a pervert; there, I said it.

Trivia
Copyrighted June 23, 1920.
At least one source gives a release date of May 30, 1920.
This was the second film in the series to be released.
The troupe who put on the show are the Haman Stock Company.

My opinion
Haven't seen it yet, but I bet it's crap. [written before I viewed it]
Absolutely shit! This could quite easily be probably the worst film I have ever seen in my entire life. [written after I viewed it]

Beatrice LaPlante
The girl
William Gillespie
Professor Haskins
Ernest Morrison Sr.
Man with chicken
Molly Thompson
The girl's mother
Jack Richardson
Sneaky actor
Fred McPherson
Landlord
Hazel Powell
Stage actress

UNIDENTIFIED CAST

INTERTITLES (click image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements:
Jesse Brisson (identification of Molly Thompson, Ernest Morrison Sr, William Gillespie, Fred McPherson and Hazel Powell)
Steve Rydzewski (identification of Jack Richardson)

This page was last updated on: 11 July 2020