The Gay Shoe Clerk

With a title that suggests a Channel 4 documentary film, this short is actually a quick sketch that is all very cheeky and funny I'm sure but hasn't really stood the test of time at all. It features a bit of a build up and some good facial expressions and finishes with the clerk of the title getting rebuked (with an umbrella) for taking liberties with his customer. It is very short and is done with just a static camera shot so I was wondering what the lasting value of it was other than being part of a bigger history. I didn't find it particularly clever or funny and, with other UK silent shorts I could be watching to see how they built the foundations, I didn't think there had been much point in seeking this one out.

For some reason or another, I happened to catch this little flick somewhere not too long ago.

It is basically a shoe salesman that is seduced by a women customer's good looks (who, by today's standards, really doesn't look that great at all) and proceeds to help her try on shoes. Part of the woman's dress slips and shows a third of her leg, which then the camera cuts to the man's face showing a really goofy suprised look on his face. Then the manager comes around and smacks him with an umbrella. Ouch!

Judging by the fact it was mildly amusing to watch this one minute video today, I'm sure it was absolutely hilarious about 100 years ago. Pretty decent camera work considering that no one back then was really a professional "cameraman." The whole thing seems pretty Chaplin-ish. Your typical short goofy comedy. Consider it a decent camera experiment, as that's all it really is. Nothing wrong with that, I guess.

I can't understand why this is such a popular film except for the fact that it does feature an early closeup that shows clearly what is still going on in the scene. This was a technique developed by G. A. Smith in his "The Sick Kitten" and indeed this short is according to some a remake of Smith's "As Seen Through a Telescope". It's a sex comedy that is pretty harmless today but was shocking for its time. Anyway, I've seen more creative one-gag movies from early cinema but the joke here really isn't that funny and comes up very basic. The lighting is really bad which makes it come across as serious until the 'joke' at the end. One of the best things about it is that the closeup is very effective and given the surviving print, it looks very good. The joke is really cheap though.

The idea here is pretty simple, but it is set up rather well, and thus the movie is amusing enough despite the limited material and running time. Early film-makers often made watchable pictures just by taking a basic idea like this, thinking of an appropriate setting, and pacing it out properly. Something like this might be used a brief scene in a movie of the present time, but in its own era it stands up well enough on its own.

The story starts with the shoe clerk waiting on a flirtatious young woman, and it then follows the subsequent developments. Nothing fancy or brilliant, but it did require some care, planning, and timing to make it work. It is also a very simple example demonstrating that it is possible to convey characters' amorous intentions by very simple means, without using explicit material.

I have used this short silent clip as part of my lessons on the history of cinema with my American History students. And while it isn't the most exciting or technically adept film of the day, it's pretty funny today and shows hard far our sexual mores have changed in only about a century. It's really great as social commentary.

Two ladies enter a shoe store. The younger one tries on a shoe. As the salesman places it on her, he exposes her ankle and even a tiny portion of her calf!! And, naturally, he loses control of himself and attacks her--only to be beaten into submission by the older woman! Funny stuff and the teens I teach think it's a real hoot!