Down on the Phoney Farm
About Down on the Phoney Farm
Farmer Al Falfa sprinkles a patch of ground and a plant springs up with a mug of beer on it. He drinks it and tries for another. The second plant grows a glass of wine with a small imp beside the glass. He does not trust it and gives the wine to his cow. The cow turns mean and chases him into a lake, over mountain peaks, and back to the plain. A giant flower shoots up. Al climbs it. The cow looks underneath, misses him, and walks out of the frame.
Cast & crew
More about Down on the Phoney Farm
Paul Terry directed, without a credit, and Edwin Thanhouser produced. Thanhouser released it on October 12, 1915, as a split-reel item of 355 feet at the end of the second reel of The Scoop at Bellville. It is the first appearance of Farmer Al Falfa. Moving Picture World, on October 16, 1915, called it an animated cartoon about a farmer who took advantage of his cow's thirst.
Themes
In film history
Farmer Al Falfa begins in this split reel and stays in Terry's cartoons into the sound period.
Making
Terry drew the cycle himself for a company that almost never released cartoons. The chase over mountains and the beer plant are the kind of impossible gags he kept using for this farmer.
Reviews
The Moving Picture World of October 16, 1915, called it an excellent animated cartoon and summed up the gag: a farmer takes advantage of his cow's thirst.
Preservation
The cartoon survives at its original short length, a little over two and a half minutes.
Notes
- The Moving Picture World schedule of October 9, 1915, spelled the title "phoney." The Bioscope listed it as Down on the Chory Farm.
- Animated cartoons were rare on the Thanhouser program. Another was Little Herman, a Falstaff release of June 18, 1915.
- Terry took Al Falfa to the Bray studio for a further series, then into Aesop's Film Fables.
- The farmer is the butcher in Terry's sound cartoon Dinner Time (1928).
- Thanhouser.org records the section length as 355 feet.
Scenes
- A plant grows a mug of beer, and Al drinks it on the spot.
- The cow drinks the wine and chases him across mountain tops.
- Al hides on top of a giant flower while the cow looks below.
Influenced
- Dinner Time (1928)
