A Clever Dummy
About A Clever Dummy
An inventor and his assistant build a life-sized mechanical dummy and give it the face of the building's janitor. The assistant and the janitor both want the inventor's daughter. A quarrel splits the partners, and the father bans the marriage. Vaudeville buyers come for the dummy. The janitor takes its place in the shipping crate, is sold, and performs on stage still pretending to be the machine. The inventors catch on, and a chase follows, with a motorcycle and a car crashing through a house.
Cast & crew
More about A Clever Dummy
Mack Sennett is credited as a director and as the writer, with Ferris Hartman, Robert P. Kerr, and Herman C. Raymaker also named as directors. Elgin Lessley photographed it. The Science Fiction Encyclopedia times a print at 19 minutes. Wikidata lists 23 minutes.
Themes
Background
A 1917 Keystone short about a vaudeville automaton and the janitor who impersonates it.
Making
Keystone built a dummy with a visible gear chest and then had Turpin climb into the act in its place.
Look
Elgin Lessley photographed the workshop test, the vaudeville turn, and the chase through a house.
Preservation
A print survives on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- Ben Turpin plays the janitor. Claire Anderson plays the daughter. James Donnelly plays the inventor. James DeLano plays the assistant.
- A control box the size of a suitcase has buttons marked Arms, Legs, Head, Body, Dance, Boxing, and Walk. A jack and a cable connect it to the dummy's chest, where gears are visible.
- The Science Fiction Encyclopedia says that if the dummy is classed as a robot, it is the first in an American film.
- Sources disagree on whether the name Peter Clay belongs to the assistant or the janitor.
Scenes
- The dummy's chest opens on gears, and a cable runs to the button box.
- The janitor is packed in the dummy's crate and sold to the vaudeville circuit.
- A motorcycle and a car crash through a house.
Also available
- Internet Archive (ACleverDummy)
