Corinna Mantlo

SUMMARY

Everybody in New York City "is in such a hurry that they take Saturday's bath on Friday so they can do Monday's washing on Sunday". But in one slower-paced, "old-fashioned corner of the city", Pop Dillon (Burt Woodruff) owns and operates the city's last horse-drawn streetcar. His granddaughter Jane Dillon (Ann Christy) is in love with Harold "Speedy" Swift (Harold Lloyd).

Speedy, an avid New York Yankees fan, is working at a soda shop. As well as doing his work, he takes frequent telephone calls during Yankees games and passes the line scores on to the kitchen staff by arranging food items in a display case (such as doughnuts for zeroes). But he loses the job after he is ordered to deliver some flowers and lets someone close a car door on them when he gets distracted by a display of baseball scores in a shop window.

Streetcar magnate W.S. Wilton (Byron Douglas) comes to Pop's home to ask for his price to sell the car line, but Speedy spots a newspaper article and realizes that this is part of a plan to form a streetcar monopoly in the city. He surreptitiously raises Pop's written price from $10,000 to $70,000. Wilton angrily refuses and threatens to force Pop out instead.

Speedy is unworried about being unemployed; he is very much used to losing jobs and finding new ones. He and Jane go to Coney Island, where they greatly enjoy themselves despite various mishaps, such as Speedy ruining his suit jacket by leaning against wet paint. On the way home along with a stray dog that decided to follow them, Speedy proposes to Jane, but she will not marry him until her grandfather's affairs are settled.

Speedy is hired as a taxi driver, but for some time a series of mishaps prevents him from actually taking a passenger, and he antagonizes a policeman. Then, to his delight, Babe Ruth (playing himself) hails the cab to get to Yankee Stadium. Although terrified by Speedy's driving, he offers Speedy a ticket to the game; but the taxi owner is there, sees Speedy in the seats when he should be working, and fires him.

At the stadium, Speedy happens to overhear Wilton on the telephone. Wilton has learned that if Pop fails to operate the horsecar every 24 hours he will lose his right to the line, and orders goons to be sent to disrupt the operation. Speedy rushes home and arranges with small-business owners on the street to organize a defense. The goons are beaten off with the help of Speedy's dog, but return and steal the horse and car.

Again helped by his dog, Speedy finds out where the car has been taken and manages to steal it back. In a madcap chase scene, he brings it back across the city to Pop's tracks, stealing fresh horses, tricking police to avoid being stopped, and replacing a broken wheel with a manhole cover.

When Wilton sees the horsecar in place, he agrees to meet Pop's price. Speedy says that Pop is a bit deaf and won't hear him until he offers $100,000. Wilton agrees, and Speedy suggests to Jane that they plan a visit to Niagara Falls by horsecar.

*During the Coney Island sequence, at one point Speedy gives the finger to himself while looking in a distorted mirror. This may be the earliest motion picture depiction of that gesture.

*At the end of the scene where Speedy gives Babe Ruth a ride in his taxi, sharp-eyed viewers can look for an easily missed cameo appearance by Lou Gehrig, Ruth's famous New York Yankee teammate. Gehrig walks by the far side of Speedy's cab, looks directly at the camera through the taxi's window, and sticks out his tongue.

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Watch the FULL FILM on The Vintagent Vimeo

SUMMARY

Love, Loot and Crash is a single-reel film starring W.C. Hauber and Fritz Schade as a couple of ‘versatile crooks’. A flustered father seeks a cook for his kitchen, his daughter seeks to elope and a pair of crooks seek to get some loot. Add the Keystone cops and stir vigorously.

Dora and her father are at a loss in the kitchen (they have just fired their cook). Their advertisement for a new cook in a newspaper attracts two crooks (one of which is Fritz Schade). He dresses like a woman to apply for the job. At his first opportunity he plans to loot the house. Dora's suitor, Harold passes her a note through the window, saying to come when he whistles. She goes upstairs to pack a bundle of clothes.

A policeman calls at the kitchen door with a posy of flowers. The cook pours the cop a glass from a large jug. Father is suspicious when he hears Harold's whistle and goes to Dora's room.

Schade tricks the cop into the basement to get more drink and locks the trap-door. He pulls a heavy bit of furniture over the trap-door and picks up his bundle of stolen silverware to leave. He escapes through the window where Harold is expecting Dora to appear. As the crook has his head covered Harold thinks it is Dora and speeds off on his motorcycle with the crook riding pillion. Father helps the policeman escape but meanwhile Schade's accomplice has arrived outside the window in a car. He whistles and Dora comes out of the window. and gets in the back seat. Father grabs the back of the car as it speeds off.

The motorcycle crashes through various objects. Father pulls himself into the back of the car with his daughter. The Keystone Cops commandeer a second car and give chase. After a crash Dora and her father catch up with Harold and father then rides pillion giving chase to the two crooks who are now together in the first car. The car ends at a seaside boardwalk and the driver-less car spins round with the crooks on the bonnet before knocking two anglers into the sea. Harold and father fly off a ramp into the sea as Dora watches in shock. The second car arrives and the police get out. As the policeman peer into the sea the driver of the second car bumps them and everyone ends in the sea.

*Watch close for an appearance of Harold Lloyd (as the fruit vendor).

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