Works featuring "chase" (93)

La secta de los misteriosos

A gang steals two halves of an ancient necklace, that legend claims holds the key to hidden treasures. One half is stolen from a countess, whose young daughter interrupts the theft and is kidnapped. The police are called in, and Detective Hernandez and his assistant go on the trail of the gang. Along the way, the ancient legend of the necklace - centered on a love affair between a Moor queen and a Christian count - is presented on screen.

Restoration of films previously considered lost is always a blessing. But when they start with a lengthy lament of the difficulties of the restoration (and the hacks to work around them), expectations have to be toned down. Originally produced in Barcelona as a 3-episode Spanish-language serial (clearly inspired by the Fantômas and Les Vampire serials), but more than half of that footage is lost. This version is a reduction of the serial into a feature film for German-language viewers. Gaps are filled by text from the original scenario - in Spanish. So expect a rough ride: choppy action with frequent jump cuts, action replaced by stills and text, and titles switching between German and Spanish (here held together with English subtitles from machine translation).

The reward for hanging in there is an earnest female-tied-to-the-train-tracks scene - to counter the claim that such scenes were already outdated and obsolete before the silent fim era (see The Bioscope: Tied to the tracks).

The Waiters Ball

The premise of 1914's Fatty's Magic Pants/Fatty's Suitless Day is ported to a hash house, where the cook and the waiter are in fierce rivalry for the fickle affections of the cashier, both trying to be the one chosen to go with her to The Waiters Ball. Along the way, the restaurant is used as a stage to showcase Roscoe's kitchen acrobatics and a variety of fast-paced comic skits.

This gem feels like a milestone in Arbuckle's growth from the often limited and flimsy material of Keystone to the wild and unhinged inventiveness of Comique. Most of the best elements of Comique-style comedy are here - even though Buster hasn't arrived yet. There's more craziness than the eye can keep up with, so the more this is viewed, the better it gets.

Metatheatrics rating (Number of smiles, winks, and other asides to the audience): 13 (Roscoe 6, Al, 6, Kate Price 1)

NOTE: Restoration posted on Internet Archive is visually better, but reconstruction posted on YouTube has additional scenes.