Series: Glenn Tryon Director: Roy Clements Producer: Hal Roach Titles: H.M. Walker Photography: Editor: Stars: Glenn Tryon, Blanche Mehaffey, Helen Gilmore Company: Pathé Exchange Released: 04 January 1925 Length: 2 reels Production No.: G-4 Filming dates: September 25 - October 8, 1924; added scenes October 20, retakes November 6-8, 1924 Rating: 5/10

Wages Of Tin

Available on DVD:

The boy (Glenn Tryon) is walking through Culver City reading a book of how to drive an automobile when he wanders blindly into a car rental garage run by Noah Young. The boy hires a car and is assisted by cross-eyed George Rowe who offers to drive for him (yep, that's a great idea). Another car returns to the garage and the driver (Billy Engle) is berated by the owner and his large assistant (Martin Wolfkeil) before being dragged away when he cannot pay. The nervous boy settles into his car with his driver and is told to be back in two hours by the owner. The driver takes him for a brief ride and explains how it all works before leaving the boy to it. He drives to his girlfriend's (Blanche Mehaffey) house and after a brief discussion with her parents (John T. Kelley and Helen Gilmore) he takes her outside for a drive in the car. But before he can get going the wheel gets stuck in a muddy puddle and sprays its contents all over the parents. They stop in town (well, he crashes into the back of a truck) and the boy goes to a store, leaving his girl at the mercy of the truck driver who pulls away, towing the car with him. The boy runs to catch up, holding two ice creams in his hands and succeeds in separating the vehicles but his car crashes into the back of the truck as a result. He also manages to snap the steering wheel in half as well and goes into a store to buy a new one. The boy drives the car back to the rental garage where he causes more damage to it. He then gets the rough treatment from the owner and his assistant, but turns the tables when he emerges from the shack unscathed and dumps the assistant on the floor before stealing the owner's money to pay for a car from his garage!

Favourite bit Noah Young instructs his assistant George Rowe to drive Glenn Tryon around in the car, and helps him into the vehicle...

Trivia • Copyrighted December 26, 1924. • Also listed as The Spat series. • Approximately 9 minutes and 6 seconds of footage is shown on the DVD, which uses titles from "Billy The Ford Buster" (1929) throughout. The piano score is by Ben Model. • The book Glenn Tryon is reading at the beginning of the film is How To Operate "An" Automobile, which emphasises quotation marks on the word "an". • The "tin" referred to in the title of the film is a reference to a tin "Lizzie" - a ford Model T car, which features as the main focus of the story. • When Glenn leaves the parents' house he finds his car is blocked in at both ends by other cars. I applaud the way he makes room for his car to leave!

	Glenn Tryon The boy
	Blanche Mehaffey The girl
	Helen Gilmore The girl's mother
	George Rowe Fords For Rent auto driver
	Noah Young Fords For Rent auto salesman
	Martin Wolfkeil Fords For Rent employee
	James T. Kelley The girl's father
	Jules Mendel Sheriff
	Billy Engle Car customer
	Chet Brandenburg Truck driver
	Jack Gavin [?]
	Bill Brokaw Policeman

SHOT ON LOCATION (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: Jesse Brisson (identification of Chet Brandenburg and Billy Engle) Dave Glass (help) This page was last updated on: 04 January 2023