Series: All Stars Director: Fred L. Guiol Producer: Hal Roach Titles: H.M. Walker Photography: George Stevens Editor: Richard C. Currier Stars: Anita Garvin, Marion Byron, Max Davidson, Edgar Kennedy Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Released: 08 December 1928 Length: 2 reels Production No.: S-14 Filming dates: July 12-24, 1928; retakes August 2, 1928 Rating: 4/10

Feed 'Em And Weep

Available on DVD:

Max (Davidson) is the owner of a railroad station diner when he receives a telegram telling him to have dinners ready for one hundred delegates who will soon be arriving by train. Fortunately he has two agency waitresses who are also on their way to assist. Cue Anita and Marion. They have hitched a ride with a wealthy-looking lady who drops them on a country road ten miles from the station. Their only hope is to flag down another motorist but this proves to be futile despite their best efforts in looking 'vampy'. One speeding motorist drives past so fast it kicks up all the dust into their faces. Dejected, they start walking before Marion trips over some rocks and face-plants the ground. Anita goes one better when she falls into a ditch! They finally reach the diner but the door is closed and despite several attempts to open it they have to rely on a dog to let them in! The girls introduce themselves as the new waitresses the owner has been expecting. Let's just say that their first impressions were not great! The train pulls in and the one hundred guests all jump off and stampede their way towards the diner. They storm the building and take their seats with the two girls caught in the mele. Max slips on a piece of meat in the kitchen and gets his head stuck in the door as Marion tries to ram it into the wall! Things finally settle down as the two waitresses begin serving the food to the waiting guests, with owner Max demanding they work faster. A few mishaps later and the train conductor (Edgar Kennedy) comes in to tell everybody they only have fifteen minutes before the train leaves.

Anita manages to spill a dinner all over one of the guests (Silas Wilcox) but he is encouraged to laugh it off by a fellow diner (Charley Lloyd) until the fellow diner realises that he himself has been the victim of some spilled food on his pants. Max tells Anita off and Marion suffers a fall when she is whacked by the kitchen door which causes her to spill her tray of food. Anita then spills hers - again - and over the same diner as before. Things go from bad to worse for the diners when the conductor announces they have only three minutes left before the train departs. Marion serves the diners unaware that her apron has been unfastened and that her undergarments are on show for all to see. For some reason the men choose to laugh at her awkward appearance as opposed to seeing the erotic side to it? For some strange reason Max decides to rush out of the kitchen carrying a tray of food for the diners and falls over a table, spilling it all over the floor, for a second time after Marion opens the door unexpectedly. "Two minutes left" shouts the conductor, as the two girls begin to fight with one another. First Marion kicks Anita, then Anita retaliates by pulling Marion's ear. This escalates into a tit-for-tat between them both as the diners look on with humour, until one of them tells them to stop fighting because he wants feeding. He gets a face-full of food courtesy of Anita who then carries on fighting with Marion until Max comes out to break them up. The conductor announces that the train is about to depart and the diners trample him to the ground as they stampede back out of the diner. In a final act of revenge Marion trips Max up whilst he is carrying a tray of food and causing him to fall down and wear it on his face!

Favourite bit When Anita Garvin falls into the hole in the road and has her legs sticking out of it vertically!

Trivia • Copyrighted July 1, 1929. • The footage availabe on the German DVD is incomplete and is made up largely of recreated intertitle cards and publicity stills. From what should be approximately 20 minutes, I calculated that there is exactly 13 minutes and 54 seconds of footage if you strip out all the still frames, credits and intertitle cards. I know because I cut the film up frame-by-frame whilst reviewing it for the site! • Near the end of the film Max Davidson comes out of the kitchen at witnesses the girls fighting. Is that a Nazi salute he performs there?! • 100 guests have their food prepared by just one cook (Charlie Hall in a rather insignificant role) and served by two waitresses. Great set-up! My opinion • It's a two-reeler which could have easily been made as a one-reeler, if you know what I mean?

	Anita Garvin Anita
	Marion Byron Marion
	Max Davidson Max, restaurant owner
	Edgar Kennedy Train conductor
	Symona Boniface Woman in car [*image from still]
	Charlie Hall Cook
	Frank Alexander Diner
	Silas Wilcox Diner
	Charley Lloyd Diner
	Charles Meakin Diner
	Chet Brandenburg Diner

CREDITS (click image to enlarge)	INTERTITLES (click image to enlarge)

STILLS (click any image to enlarge)

SHOT ON LOCATION (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: Steve Massa (for identifying Symona Boniface) This page was last updated on: 08 December 2023