User Reviews

Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew -- he was the uncle of Ethel, Lionel and John Barrymore; she was his second wife -- spent his last years doing short film comedy, first for Vitagraph, then for their own company, releasing through Metro. Until his death in 1919 they were enormously popular in their portrayal of Middle Class Angst. This one showed up in the batch of films repatriated a couple of years ago from New Zealand and can be viewed -- albeit at a very slow frame rate -- at the National Film preservation Foundation's website. Go see it.

In this one, Mr. and Mrs. Drew are visited by her brother, played by Donald McBride, who is so young he looks like Jimmy Stewart. He is on vacation from "Yarvard", where he seems to be majoring in barhopping. He charms his sister, steals his brother-in-law's cigars, announces he will be spending his entire vacation with them and demonstrates a knockout punch to his sister, using Mr. Drew as his subject.

The pleasure in these movies for the modern viewer is in Mr. Drew's bits of business. In this one he does a lovely slow burn -- exactly the same sort that McBride would perform when confronted by the Marx Brothers a quarter of a century later; he then plots his revenge on the young whippersnapper.

Not many of the Drews' works have survived the ravages of time and most of those that do have suffered a lot of decomposition. Looking at this very nice print is a great pleasure.

Back in the 1910s, about the biggest producer of movie comedies was Keystone--home to Mack Sennett and his knockabout comedians. The films were often quite funny--in a broad and undemanding sort of way. Folks usually ended up bonking each other on the head, kicking each other in the behind or shooting wildly at each other for laughs. Sophisticated, they were NOT! However, when I saw "By Might of His Right", I was quite surprised. Here was a comedy from the 1910s and it had none of this. Instead, it had a well developed plot and was a domestic comedy you'd expect to see in the 1920s--without all the slapstick.

The film begins with the wife's obnoxious little brother coming for a visit. The guy is annoying and really annoys his brother-in-law (Sidney Drew*). So, the brother-in-law concocts a plan--a plan that involves a rigged boxing match. I'd say more, but really don't want to spoil the fun.

The bottom line is that while the film lacks goofy laughs and is focused much more on plot, this is a welcome relief for the time. My score of 8 is to indicate that it is clearly superior to other comedies of the era--and it has aged quite well. Well worth your time.

*Sidney Drew was the uncle of the famous Barrymore trio--John, Ethel and Lionel. He was a stage and screen star and also directed himself and his wife in quite a few silents.