His Nibs (film)
Encyclopedia
Story
The Slippery Elm Picture Palace screens the film ‘’He Fooled ‘em All’’ as various rural characters watch. The owner, operator and projectionist is “His Nibs.” He tells the audience that he has cut the titles from the film but will explain the action. “The Boy” leaves a small town in the film-within-the-film to get rich in the city, but he is swindled out of his money, his clothes are stolen, and he is forced to become a dishwasher to pay his rent. “The Girl” (Colleen) and The Girl's father are talked into visiting the city by a swindler, but luckily they end up at the hotel where “The Boy” is working, and he disrupts the plot. All this is explained by “His Nibs” as the film shows, “His Nibs” offering his own commentary on the action as the story advances. Having eliminated the customary happy ending, "His Nibs" tells the audience that The Boy and The Girl get married just the same.Cast
- Charles "Chic" SaleChic SaleCharles "Chic" Sale , was an American actor and vaudevillian. Named at birth Charles Partlow Sale, he was a son of Frank Orville and Lillie Belle Sale, and brother of writer, actress Virginia Sale-Wren....
- The Boy, Theo. Bender, "His Nibs"/Wally Craw, local weather prophet/Mr. Percifer, editor of The Weekly Bee/El) - Colleen MooreColleen MooreColleen Moore was an American film actress, and one of the most fashionable stars of the silent film era.-Early life:...
- The Girl - Joseph DowlingJoseph DowlingJoseph Dowling is a retired Irish Fianna Fáil politician. An auctioneer, Dowling was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála for the Dublin South West constituency at the 1965 general election having previously stood in the 1961 election...
- The Girl`s father - J. P. LockneyJ. P. LockneyJ. P. Lockney was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 105 films between 1915 and 1937.He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Selected filmography:* The Guilty Man * Fuss and Feathers...
- Old Sour Apples - Walt WhitmanWalt WhitmanWalter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
- The Boy's Father - Lydia Yeamans TitusLydia Yeamans TitusLydia Yeamans Titus was an Australian singer and actress of the stage and motion pictures. She was the daughter of Edward Yeamans, a circus clown and Annie Yeamans. Her mother was a noted stage performer on two continents as well as having traveled to Japan, China, Java and the Philippines...
- The Boy's Mother - Harry EdwardsHarry EdwardsHarry Edwards is an African-American sociologist who took his PhD at Cornell University and is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley....
- First Villain
Background
The background of this film is complicated and unclear. It was originally based on a short story, ‘’The Smart Aleck’’, by Irvin S. CobbIrvin S. Cobb
Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb was an American author, humorist, and columnist who lived in New York and authored more than 60 books and 300 short stories.-Biography:...
from the’’Saturday Evening Post’’, a story of a small-town wit that travels to the big city and finds himself out of his depth.
His Nibs started life as The Smart Aleck, a vehicle for Charles 'Chic' Sale, a popular comedian popular in the 1920s for his caricatures of rural 'hick' characters... a “rural protean comedian” according to the New York Tribune. Filmed between March and May of 1920, The Smart Aleck was very different in style and from when it was released some time later as His Nibs. It is possible that in its original form, the film was poorly received, and rather than start over from scratch the existing film was re-edited and a new framing story was shot around the existing material. The original The Smart Aleck appears to have been a spoof of the popular story of the young, unspoiled man who goes to the city, fights off temptation and manages to save his sweetheart in the end. That format of film was still very popular at the time, and as Chic Sale was best known for his great variety of caricatures, it is possible that playing only one character ("The Boy," in the best D.W. Griffith style) was poorly received. If this was the case, then The Smart Aleck is the basic story around which His Nibs is based. This theory has been suggested by film historian Richard Koszarski.
The film The Smart Aleckis presented as a film-within-the-film (retitled He Fooled 'em All). The new, framing story consists of Sales playing most of the parts himself, including the spinster organist but chiefly as the projectionist, who has cut the title cards from the film so he can give the audience his own interpretation.
Colleen’s work on the film overlapped with her work on the drama When Dawn Came. It was her second Robertson-Cole film; the first being The Devil’s Claim.
Footnotes
- Jeff Codori (2012), Colleen Moore; A Biography of the Silent Film Star, McFarland Publishing,(Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-4969-9, EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8899-5).