Jewish Prudence

While I would never go so far as to give this comedy short a score of 10, it is extremely funny and I found myself laughing out loud on several occasions. I'll reserve 10s for a very small number of truly great shorts--this one is near-great.

As far as my review goes, I probably can't add a lot to the excellent review by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre. They summarized the film very well as well as gave background information that I certainly wasn't aware of--even though I have a very extensive knowledge of silent comedies. Because their summary is so good, I'll leave it up to you to read that if you want an in-depth explanation of the plot. I really wasn't aware of this film until I saw it bundled in the British release of the films of Laurel and Hardy. While neither is in this film, it was apparently written by Laurel and so it was thrown in as sort of a bonus. This is odd, because Laurel wrote other films and acted in quite a few without Oliver Hardy but they aren't also included in the set.

This film is about a Jewish man and his three lazy and stupid grown children. The adventures they have and the gags throughout the film are great, though in today's world it may make many uncomfortable. After all, Papa Gimplewart is a conniving and dishonest man who will do practically anything for money--a popular image of Jews in the 1920s. Nowadays, such a stereotype will no doubt make many cringe--especially in light of the Holocaust. However, this would be a mistake--you can't just ignore this film because it is exceptionally funny and deserves to be preserved and remembered despite changing times.

By the way, sadly the sound track for this silent film isn't particularly good. It consists of various Scott Joplin songs tossed into the film and they don't particularly match the action or mood.