"We believe his first tooth is arriving." So reads one of the titles in this episode of one of the many charming Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew comedies from this period. Although most people now think that silent comedy was slapstick and little more, there were a large number of drawing-room comedies and the Drews specialized in them: well written -- usually by Mrs. Drew -- and wonderfully performed. They were enormously popular, first at Vitagraph and later for their own company, releasing through Metro.
This one, about the travails of anxious parents, worrying that their child is an idiot because his first tooth is late in arriving, is filled with funny titles like the above, but there are fewer sight gags than in most of them -- Mr. Drew, uncle of Lionel, John and Ethel Barrymore, was particularly adept at stage business. Because far too much of the story has to be told by title cards, I don't rate this among their best work, but it does show up on TCM and thus is probably one of the most accessible of their now frustratingly rare movies to survive. And it is still darned funny.
This one, about the travails of anxious parents, worrying that their child is an idiot because his first tooth is late in arriving, is filled with funny titles like the above, but there are fewer sight gags than in most of them -- Mr. Drew, uncle of Lionel, John and Ethel Barrymore, was particularly adept at stage business. Because far too much of the story has to be told by title cards, I don't rate this among their best work, but it does show up on TCM and thus is probably one of the most accessible of their now frustratingly rare movies to survive. And it is still darned funny.
