The New School Teacher
About The New School Teacher
Absent-minded Professor Timmons arrives to teach in a small town and meets Diana Buck and her brother Waldo, one of his pupils, at Alexander Buck's house. Waldo and the class hit him with tacks, pepper in a bouquet, and a cat shut inside the geography globe, and Diana uses Timmons to make her fiancé Wales jealous. A camping trip ends with Timmons nearly drowning. When escaped arsonist Hotspot Henri sets the school on fire, Waldo is caught in his own bear trap; Timmons carries him out, Wales tries to steal the credit, and Waldo tells the crowd who actually went in.
Cast & crew
More about The New School Teacher
C. C. Burr produced it for Associated Exhibitors, part of a six-feature deal reported in Exhibitors Herald on 7 July 1923. Gregory La Cava directed, with Nick Grinde as assistant, and Raymond S. Harris shared the adaptation. Shooting ran from mid-July to early September 1923. La Cava could not find the right school in Queens, so exteriors were a former schoolhouse in Englewood Cliffs. Local firemen stood by, and played extras, when the crew smoked the building. Copyright LP19671, C. C. Burr Pictures, 4 December 1923. Six reels, 5,284 feet.
Themes
Making
La Cava had been directing Burr's short comedies. This was the second of two features Burr gave him in 1923, after Restless Wives. The school fire was a smoke effect, not a burn-down, with the Englewood Cliffs fire department on the set.
Look
William McCoy and Neil Sullivan photographed the black-and-white picture. The school exteriors are a real building in Englewood Cliffs, with smoke pots for the fire.
Music
Silent, with English intertitles.
Preservation
A print exists. Silent Era lists it as surviving and in the public domain in the United States. A copy runs on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The stories used are Irvin S. Cobb's "Lover's Leap" and "Young Nuts of America," from Irvin Cobb at His Best (1923).
- An opening card calls the teacher "the doormat upon which the passing generation wipes its feet.
- Charles "Chic" Sale, a vaudeville comic, plays Timmons. Polly Archer plays Diana Buck, Russell Griffin plays Waldo, and Robert Bentley plays Wales.
- Western Import Company released it in Britain in 1926.
- Moving Picture World of 8 September 1923 reported that shooting had just finished.
Scenes
- Diana throws silhouettes on a window shade so Wales will think she and Timmons are together.
- A cat is shut inside the globe Timmons uses for geography.
- Waldo, caught in his own bear trap inside the burning school, names Timmons as the man who carried him out.
Influenced by
- Irvin S. Cobb stories "Lover's Leap" and "Young Nuts of America
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The New School Teacher (1924).webm)
Quotes
This picture is dedicated to the school teacher --- the doormat upon which the passing generation wipes its feet, as it moves on through the door of opportunity.
