If you know silent comedy, you know Charlie Murray. He started out at Biograph, then worked at Keystone with Chaplin, Arbuckle & Normand. (Murray's professional association with Mack Sennett outlasted them all.) By the early '20s, he was starring in his own series for the All-Star company. Already middle-aged by that time, he was tall and skinny, with an expressive rubber-like face, and sometimes wore a "beard" that looked like a streak of black paint across his chin.
The Pill Pounder was one of several two-reel comedies made for All-Star, filmed in New York. Murray plays a pharmacist, with a formidable wife and a cute teenage daughter. But he regards his leisure time as far more important than his work; this druggist spends most of his time with cronies in the back of his shop, playing cards. An amusing routine involves the druggists' cronies, who cheat every time he is called away to wait on customers; ultimately, this backfires on them. Meanwhile, the druggist's daughter calls her boyfriend to arrange a meeting at Dad's shop.
Here's where our interest really kicks in: the girl is played by 17-year-old Clara Bow, amazingly young and dewy-eyed. The Pill Pounder, which was among her first screen appearances, was believed to be lost for decades. Just last year, a print turned up unexpectedly when a film distribution center in Omaha, Nebraska, went out of business. The print was trimmed for TV broadcasts, and all title cards were removed. (Which is why we don't know the characters' names.) What survives is just over half of the original comedy. Even so, it's certainly better than nothing!
During Clara's first scene, unfortunately, she's wearing a hat with a brim which partially covers her face. Later, however, the hat has been pulled back, and we can see those fabulous eyes. Her best sequence involves a routine with her boyfriend at the pharmacy. He has an upset stomach, so her father gives him a compound of 'Fomo Seltzer.' In a dream-like gag, this makes him feel so light he actually sails through the air in slow-motion, like a bird on the wing. Subsequently, there is consternation when the druggist believes--erroneously--he has poisoned the boy.
The short ends abruptly, sorry to say. We can hope the rest of the film may turn up in one of those tins, in Omaha. Meanwhile, it's a pleasure to get a brief look at the very young Clara Bow, at the start of her meteoric career.
