the bully
by Douglas Messerli
Louis Myll (director) Keep Moving
(The Mishaps of Musty Suffer #2) / 1915, released 1916
Although filmed in 1915, Louis
Myll’s Keep Moving was not released until 1916, as the first of what
eventually became ten one-reel adventures titled collectively as The Mishaps
of Musty Suffer, some or perhaps all of which still exist in the Turner
Classics Movie archives.
This first section appears to not have yet established Musty’s royal
background, which is summarized by TCM as follows:
“Gloom pervades the kingdom of
Blunderland because the royal child longs to see the world. After a ceremony in
which the king and queen rollerskate to the throne, the fairy tramp appears and
sends the royal child into the wicked world. Dippy Mary gives the child, now a
tramp known as Musty Suffer, a mansion where he bathes in beer and is cuddled
by six beautiful women, but when Mary serenades him with a German band, he
throws himself out of the window and lands in a military ambulance. Musty is
taken to prison and, because he refuses to drink water, is ordered to be shot;
but he stops several cannon balls with his chest and escapes through rubber
bars. After the fairy tramp returns Musty to the mansion, Musty is abducted by
burglars who force him to fight champion Willie Work. Although Willie beats
Musty unmercifully, they set off together in search of adventure. At a barber
shop, hair restorer is put on Musty's face. In a saloon, Musty's new beard gets
saturated with gasoline and an explosion rids him of his whiskers. After other
adventures, Musty wishes to be sent back to the palace. The fairy tramp
accomplishes this and Musty becomes the royal child again.”
Since variations of some of these events occur in Keep Moving
according to its Moving Picture World synopsis, perhaps the series was
originally conceived differently than the film ultimately became, which would
explain the variations in tone and substance in the synopsis provided by Moving
Picture World from that of TCM.
The Moving Picture World makes no mention of a magical kingdom, a royal
background or the various other fantastical elements described above. In this
first film, we’re simply told that Musty (Harry Watson) gets a job in a grocery
store before being fired, in which various events occur, beginning with a
female customer who demands that he show her nearly everything in the store
before buying only a five-cent package of crackers; he takes revenge by eating
the artificial grapes on her hat. When she discovers him in process, she throws
a basket at apples at him.
Then a sissy-boy buys a ball of yarn for his knitting. So disgusted is
Musty with the boy’s effeminate manner that he sticks a firecracker into the
package which, so the synopsis reports, has “startling results.”
When a cowboy-desperado enters, Musty is forced to give over half the
contents in the store for five cents. And when a salesman happens by, Musty
advises the grocer not to buy from him, which results in the drummer throwing a
package of smashed crackers in his face. To get even, Musty puts milk in the
drummer’s hat.
When Musty decides to take lunch, he pours Tabasco sauce unto his
sandwich by mistake, forcing him to desperately desire water. Attempting to
reach a sprinkling can suspended from the ceiling, he pulls down the roof and
is fired.
Other adventures involving a barber, a
drink and lunch counter, and a mistake with gasoline which ends up in an
explosion follow.
The important event here, obviously, is
Musty’s inability to tolerate the passing sissy, the insignificance of the
event compared with all the others, making clear that the character was
intended to be introduced only for the few laughs it might evoke and not to
carry the plot any further or provide social commentary—although it clearly
tells us something of general social values.
Los Angeles, October 1, 2022
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