Komyathy @the RKO-Chester📽 Rather fake Cinderella adaptation (I don't give # or star ratings to shorts or documentaries as they are not comparable to films).Alice Howell (sometimes called "the girl Charlie Chaplin") stars in this romping slapstick comedy. Her character is called Cinderella and there is a ball herein, but at this ball Howell is pushed into impersonating a countess by her employer.Most of this 27 minute short, however, has Howell running in a street (a la Keaton with other cooks chasing her), biking, being pulled on roller-skates by a dog, getting drunk on spiked punch, catching two safe-crackers and dishing out soup and pancakes in a diner.Part of my growing Cinderella list. Viewing suggestions of non-English-speaking classic productions are welcome!Unlike other copies online, this seems uncut: www.youtube.co/watch?v=KeBNSdRTupQ
This comedy short features Alice Howell and Dick Smith in an amusing spin on the classic fairytale.We first meet Howell in a soup kitchen where she serves the deserving poor with food, music and a mad hairdo. There's a lot of business with comedy taches and beards, a boozy scene with a blotto butler (Smith).Howell is often stated to be the 'female Chaplin' but her humour is more geared towards the crazy than the pathos. Some nice location filming and a lovely print for a public domain film makes this a pleasure to watch, even if it is minor league stuff.
Alice Howell plays a waitress who somehow gets a job as a cook for a socially ambitious family and is ordered along with the family's butler to pose as a count and countess who are unable to attend their 'social event of the year.' A few comical moments liven up an otherwise ordinary comedy. Howell tries hard but simply doesn't have natural comic ability.
