User Reviews

This British short is historically interesting but not very funny as I assume it was meant to be. It's a marionette production mostly taking place in an opium den in Limehouse's Chinatown. There is also a street scene and a scene in Herlock Sholmes flat. In the street scene we clearly see a sign saying "Dr. Black's Pink Pills," which is a possible reference to the very popular patent medicine "Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People." I took the marionette Anna Went Wrong as a tribute to the international popularity of the Chinese American actress Anna May Wong. Wong was in the 1933 film 'A Study in Scarlet' with Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes. The short is a parody of Sherlock Holmes and also reflects the popularity of 'Yellow Peril' stories such as Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu series. As someone who as a child was an avid at home member of the Howdy Doody (surely the most famous American marionette) peanut gallery, I have a fondness for marionettes. In this short, the marionette manipulation is uneven, sometimes good but sometimes a bit sloppy. Marionette shows and Sherlock Holmes were popular at this time (and Holmes still is) so the audience then might have found this short entertaining. But today, not so much. But Sherlock Holmes fans and marionette enthusiasts will want to see this odd little short.

Limejuice Mystery or Who Spat in Grandfather's Porridge?, The (1930)

* (out of 4)

I'm sure this film will appeal to somewhat but I'm not exactly sure who. This is basically a spoof of Sherlock Holmes movies but the only catch is that all the characters are played by puppets. Herlock Sholmes, Watson and Anna Went Wong must try and uncover some mystery but I'll be honest and admit that I'm not really sure what the mystery was, although I'm guessing it had something to do with the title. However, the stuff that is mentioned in the title, like the porridge, is never actually seen in the film so I'm really not sure what's happening. The British were still releasing silent movies at this point so needless to say there's not any dialogue and we don't even get any title cards trying to explain anything. Instead we get countless scenes with poorly dressed up puppets jumping and bouncing around. That's pretty much it for 9-minutes but I'm just thankfully that the producers didn't try and push this thing into two-reel material. I'm not even sure die-hard Holmes fans would want to check this out as the detective is only in a handful of scenes and to be honest none of the jokes are of any interest and God knows the mystery isn't.

"The Limejuice Mystery" is a truly dreadful little film and I truly hope that folks of the time didn't like it. If they did, then it sure says a lot about how awful life was in the UK in 1930! Yuck! The short is done completely with marionettes--very, very poorly manipulated and ugly marionettes.

Britain was still making silent films (the switch to sound was well behind the US--yet Britain still was among the first countries to convert) and the lack of dialog made this difficult to understand--since the actions of the puppets was so vague. It seemed like the people making the film never thought to redo scenes that were done poorly or even considered watchability! Mostly, it's just creepy looking marionettes jumping about doing god knows what! And it's all set to music and sound effects that just don't do much to convey any sort of story or mystery. It's supposed to be a parody of Sherlock Holmes, but apart from calling him 'Sholmes', I didn't see much of what I would consider a parody. All in all, a pathetic little weird film in the public domain that's best ignored.

This bizarre short using marionettes was in the grand tradition of eccentric British humour, being a direct forebear of at least The Goons. The title has actually no relevance to the story as filmed. As far as I could make out, the first scene is set in a Limehouse (Chinatown) opium den and bar - there were several character smoking opium pipes. A girl (Anna Went Wrong - geddit) is brought in by a Chinaman, who interacts violently with the barman. Wrong slips off her coat and appears in a skimpy outfit for a dance routine. Somebody get bopped in the head and a police squad (straight out of the Pirates of Penzance) are called. Being unable to solve the mystery, one of their number is sent to find Herlock Sholmes. He is in his Baker Street flat playing the violin, also flat, to Watson's annoyance. They head off to Limehouse, Sholmes at first disguised as a woman (he beats off one masher), then as a Tyrolean bergwanderer (a reference to Moriaty?) Along the way they pass several shops whose signs I suspect were meaningful, a Tube station (with the all-red roundel) and a hansom cab, the latter two being clearly incongruous. In the den a Chinaman is hanging from a light fitting and Sholmes appears to rescue Wrong. It would need another viewing to get all the references, but despite its simplistic style, it was cleverly done and quite original.