Series: All Stars
Director: Fred Jackman
Producer: Hal Roach
Titles: H.M. Walker
Photography: George Stevens
Editor: 
Stars: Matt Moore, Anna May Wong, Sôjin Kamiyama, Oliver Hardy
Company: Pathé Exchange
Released: 27 March 1927
Length: 2 reels
Production No.: S-17
Filming dates: October 6-20, 1926
Rating: 4/10
The Honorable Mr. Buggs
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Plot summary from the 9 minutes 28 seconds of footage available for review... (I think this is from the beginning of reel 2): The footage opens with Mr. Buggs (MATT MOORE) attending to some creature he keeps in a birdcage when a woman arrives at the house. Butler-in-blackface OLIVER HARDY goes to open the door before she walks in by herself. She is Baroness Stoloff (ANNA MAY WONG). Shortly after, Buggs' fiancé (MARTHA SLEEPER) arrives with her mother (LAURA LA VARNIE) but before Buggs can open the door to them the Baroness pulls out a knife and threatens him. The quick-thinking butler disarms her with an umbrella before she is escorted upstairs and out of sight by Buggs. The two women outside barge their way into the house through the front door. Buggs makes an agreement with the Baroness for her to keep quiet but when he pulls out a handkerchief a box containing a bug falls from his pocket onto the floor. The bug makes its way up the Baroness' leg as Buggs goes downstairs to greet Martha. Butler Hardy turns into a voyeur as he peeps through the keyhole of the door where the Baroness begins to undress to rid herself of the bug that has invaded her clothing. He runs downstairs (after having a good look first!) and tells the master, who then runs upstairs to sort out the Baroness. Martha and her mother leave just as a crook crawls in through the bedroom window and confronts the Baroness. She overpowers him and the man makes his exit. Martha and her mother re-enter the house to confront Buggs after they see his silhouette on a blind talking to the Baroness in the bedroom. They encounter the butler having an altercation with a giraffe but when they realize it's just a prop they leave him to it. The crook, who has somehow re-entered the house and tries to steal some jewels from the Baroness but she escapes and he grabs the mother instead and tries to rob her (he even pulls her clothes off whilst she is on the bed, dear god). Buggs heroically overpowers the thief as the cops rush in and arrest the Baroness and the crook. The mother retreats upstairs and gets back into the bed (for some reason), with the butler trapped underneath it as a bug crawls towards his nose.... |
| Trivia • Copyrighted January 17, 1927. • Dell Henderson served as a supervising director on the film. • A 9.5mm version of the film with French intertitle cards running approximately 11 minutes 16 seconds was briefly uploaded onto YouTube in November 2022 before it was removed. I edited out the cards and re-framed the opening footage (which was cropped), resulting in a total of actual footage of exactly 9 minutes 28 seconds. • Matt Moore was 22 years older than Martha Sleeper, who was only 16 at the time of filming in October 1926. They share a full-on kiss in one scene. • Seriously, just how unnecessarily big is that house? • There are five cops and a detective who show up in the final scene. It's hard to identify any of them due to the poor quality of the picture but James Finlayson may be the detective? My opinion • Oliver Hardy in blackface. Yes. He jumps around and over-acts his way through the film as child actor Martha Sleeper gets preyed upon by a pervy middle-aged man. Was nice to see the film but it doesn't stand out as being one of the better films in the All Star series, though the series was still in its infancy at the time. |
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Matt Moore Mr. Buggs |
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Anna May Wong Baroness Stoloff |
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Sôjin Kamiyama The crook |
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Oliver Hardy Butler |
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Martha Sleeper The fiancé |
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Laura La Varnie The mother |
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Sam Lufkin Fake detective |
Priscilla Dean [?] |
James Finlayson [?] |
| INTERIOR SHOTS (click any image to enlarge) 
 
 
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| Acknowledgements: Laurel Or Hardy by Rob Stone (book) Lorenzo Tremarelli (assistance) Jesse Brisson (identification of Sam Lufkin) This page was last updated on: 25 November 2022 |