The Bell Hop
About The Bell Hop
A government official locks secret papers in a hotel safe. A spy ring lifts them. A woman agent pulls the hotel's bellhop into the job of getting the papers back, and the chase runs through the lobby, the rooms, and the staff.
Cast & crew
More about The Bell Hop
Larry Semon and Norman Taurog wrote and directed the short. Semon produced it with Albert E. Smith for Vitagraph, and Semon plays the bellhop.
Themes
Background
Vitagraph issued the two-reeler in September 1921, while spy plots were still common in American shorts and features.
Making
Hans F. Koenekamp photographed it. Semon was already directing his own Vitagraph comedies and putting himself at the center of the gags.
Look
Hans F. Koenekamp shot the short, with the gags staged in the hotel's public rooms and corridors.
Preservation
A print circulates under the title The Bell Hop. It is not treated as a lost film.
Notes
- Oliver Hardy plays the hotel manager and is billed as Babe Hardy.
- Frank Alexander plays the government official. Norma Nichols plays a maid, and William Hauber plays the hotel detective.
- Al Thompson, Pete Gordon, and Walter Wilkinson, as a little boy, are also in the cast.
- Vitagraph released the short.
Scenes
- The official locks the papers in the hotel safe.
- The bellhop is pulled into the attempt to get them back.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-the-bell-hop)
