Series: Will Rogers Director: Alfred J. Goulding Producer: Hal Roach Titles: Will Rogers Photography: Robert Doran, Arthur Lloyd Editor: T.J. Crizer Stars: Will Rogers Company: Pathé Exchange Released: 02 March 1924 Length: 2 reels Production No.: R-7 Filming dates: October 27 - November 5, 1923; retakes December 6 & 13, 1923 Rating: -/10

The Cake Eater

A group of cowboys merrily play a game of 'leapfrog' on a ranch as Will (ROGERS) practices his lasso skills. He uses a horses tail as target practice, finally snagging it on his fourth attempt. The ranch hands complain of their concerns that the new owners of the ranch will probably turn it into factory or a reform school and if so they ought to quit now. The new owners' representative arrives to inspect the place, accompanied by two ladies (PATSY O'BYRNE and GRACE WOODS). The women give Will a good going over with their lustful eyes and compliment him on his physique and general appearance. Behind the barn the other guys make fun of Will and can't wait to rib him when he joins them. They renew their objections to quit the ranch but they are persuaded by the representative's woman (MARIE MOSQUINI) to stay "for her". Will suggests that one of their group should go and plead their case to the new owner and proposes a fair way to decide whom by laying out some sugar in front of each man and enticing flies to land on it. The one whose sugar the fly lands on first is the 'loser'. When Will's back is turned the other men switch their sugar with some grain so that Will's sugar will be sure to be landed upon. Defeated, Will takes their complaint to the new owner, but his 'proposal' is misinterpreted by one of the women, Arabella (O'Byrne) who clearly has a crush on him.

She retreats into a bedroom to smarten herself up when her friend (Woods) enters the room and takes up her own flirting with Will. When she leaves, Marie comes in and Will's face lights up, but it is short lived when Arabella sits down and hand-feeds Will some food she has made "with her own hands". Meanwhile in the kitchen, her friend is about to bring out a large cake for Will but accidentally spills kerosine into it without realising (I mean, it was just asking to be spilled!) Will reluctantly takes a bite of the cake before handing it to his buddies through the window but they quickly hand it back after tasting it! Naturally, they felt it appropriate to place it on the same chair Will was sitting on before he sits back down on it. Finally Will manages to escape the two ladies and runs into Marie outside, who for reasons I still cannot work out, hands him a photograph of herself. Like you do. Well, it turns out that every guy on the ranch has a copy of the same picture. The two women come knocking around Will's hut but he is sick on account of the cake so the other men rally around to mock him and dress him in a white gown before ushering him into the house where the ladies are waiting. They get him straight into bed (no, not like that!) and nurse him silly. Marie offers to go and fetch a doctor but Arabella takes over and goes herself, whilst Will escapes the bed through the window. When the horse driving Arabella goes out of control Will races after it on his horse and saves the day, but he doesn't realise he just saved the woman whom he had spent the past twenty minutes trying to avoid!

Favourite bit That 'reveal' in Marie Mosquini's introduction to the film on six minutes is quite sexy in my opinion. She slowly lifts her veil to show her face in such a provocative way.

Trivia • Will Rogers wrote the titles for the film. • Throughout the film Will Rogers's character is referred to as a Greek God.  This is due to the analysis of the two lustful women who compliment him early on. • Marie hands Will a picture of herself because he has been so nice about staying on the ranch.  Don't you think that is just a little bit vain of her?  It turns out that she has in fact given the same picture to all of the guys on the ranch, a la Jean Harlow in Laurel & Hardy's Beau Hunks. • At the end when Patsy O'Byrne is being driven away in the cart, she appears to stumble forward accidentally just as the film cuts.

	Will Rogers Will
	Marie Mosquini Representative's woman
	Billy Engle Ranch hand
	Grace Woods Arabella's friend
	Patsy O'Byrne Arabella
	Al Forbes Representative
	Joe Bordeaux Ranch hand

UNIDENTIFIED CAST

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

Acknowledgements: Tommie Hicks (help) This page was last updated on: 02 March 2023