Musty Suffer in "Showing Some Speed" (1916) silent film, score by Ben Model
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- Опубликовано: 9 дек 2014
- "Showing Some Speed" is from the second 10-film series in The Mishaps of Musty Suffer (1916-17). Buy the DVD at amzn.com/B00JRHW4GK. Musical score © 2014 by Ben Model, all rights reserved. Produced for video by Ben Model, film sourced from and preserved by the Library of Congress. www.mustysuffer.com
Film running speed 20fps. Scanned in HD from 16mm archival positive print made by Library of Congress in 1959 from original nitrate (which no longer survives).
This film was part of a Kickstarter-funded DVD project; there were too many good Musty Suffer films to fit on the DVD, and this is one that didn't make it onto the disc but is released here exclusively online.
Showing Some Speed (6/28/1916) Series 2, Whirl #2. Cast: Harry Watson Jr., Dan Crimmins.
Syn: “Musty, messenger boy, is assigned to deliver a cook stove to a certain address. In spite of the fact that there is no one home and the house locked up, Musty takes the stove in through the window, unlocks the door from the inside, takes the stove back out through the window again, delivers it through the door in the approved manner, locks the door on the inside and exits through the window.
Down the street comes a woman of ancient Irish lineage, who has discovered a new way of beating the high cost of living. She is following a grocer’s boy who is delivering a sack of flour. There is a hole in the sack, and the shrewd old biddy is catching in her apron the four that escapes. When her apron is filled, she starts for home, only to collide with Musty, who is hurrying about his business on his trusty bike. Musty receives a beating from the economical one.
Musty goes to sleep and is aroused by his boss in a unique manner. The boss pulls a cord and about a ton of bricks descend upon our hero. As a result Musty is bent double and has to be straightened out by some carpenters, upon whom he calls for help. The carpenters give Musty a window frame to deliver, but he gets entangled with a hitching post to the dilapidation of the frame. Musty is summoned to a restaurant to awaken a sleeping waiter, which he does effectively.
A cheating gambler is caught and ejected from the game. Imprisoned in a room, he calls for a messenger boy, telling Musty’s boss over the phone that is a case of life or death. Musty hurries to save a life. The cheater changes clothes with him, and thus disguised, passes through the blockade of indignant sharps unhampered. Musty, clad in the unfair one’s garments is not so fortunate. He is captured and thrown through a brick wall. Like a projectile he hurtles through the air and strikes the cheater bringing him to earth. Musty and cheater recognize each other and Musty calmly strikes the hoodoo over the head with a brick. The cheater politely takes the brick from Musty’s hand and returns the compliment. Then both of them fade away into a sleep.” (7/29/1916 Moving Picture World, pg. 849) 
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So glad not to have missed Musty!What a gang of nitwits. And thanks to Ben
Some find these an acquired taste, but a lot of us silent comedy fans really like these bizarro one-reelers. Do you have the DVDs we released? undercrankproductions.com/the-mishaps-of-musty-suffer/
Delightful. Nice print, great score. Thanks so much for introducing me to this under-
known personality.
Glad you enjoyed this! Kudos to the Library of Congress for preserving the series and for helping to make these available.
AWESOME!!! Thanks Ben! Cheers🍻
Thank you, so much, for bringing us Musty Suffer! I've been waiting over a year for you to post some more Musty videos, so I finally bought both DVD's and the companion book. These are so much fun and the music is perfect! I've seen your name in the credits of silent movies over the years on TCM Silent Sundays and loved your work. I hope you can find some more Harry Watson Jr.
+David Munkhoff Glad you enjoyed these films, and thanks so much for buying the DVDs and companion booklet.
Thanks for posting! Not as imaginative as some of the others I've seen so far, but still appreciate the opportunity to see it. He's more just foolish here as opposed to his sort of otherworldly weirdness in other whirls.
Yeah, SHOWING SOME SPEED is sort of a companion piece to BLOW YOUR HORN, the other film in which Musty is a messenger. They're both good, but HORN is slightly better and that's why it wound up on the DVD. Glad you enjoyed this one, nonetheless!
Well, I am a huge fan, so even a lesser whirl is still good fun in my book!
What appeals to me in some of the others is similar to what appeals to me about Mr. Bean: It's as if they are aliens dropped into our world without an instruction manual to tell them how to navigate even the simplest things. They make it up as they go along, with often bizarre results.
I never thought about the Mr. Bean/alien parallel, but with the "fairy tramp" element in the Musty films and all that, he does seem to be from another universe.
I love that aspect of the Musty whirls; they are fantastic with, usually, no explanation at all. Although at least one, if I am remembering rightly, turns out to be a dream, doesn't it? I need to watch my set! So far, I have only seen the ones online and the ones at the AFI.
Who the hell is Musty?
We've run a couple of the Musty Suffer shorts on The Silent Comedy Watch Party, and Steve Massa has discussed some of the history on these films, their star (Harry Watson, Jr.) and director (Louis Myll).
Completely stupid and very funny!