There It Is

1928 HorrorComedy 19 minutes Directed by Charles R. Bowers

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About There It Is

Objects start moving in the Frisbie house in New York. Chickens hatch full-grown from eggs, pots float across rooms, and a pair of pants dances by itself. The family sends for Scotland Yard. Detective Charley MacNeesha crosses the ocean with his assistant, a stop-motion bug named MacGregor, who travels in a matchbox. They come to deal with the Fuzz-Faced Phantom.

Cast & crew

More about There It Is

Educational Pictures released the short in 1928. The English Wikipedia credits Harold L. Muller as director. Charles R. Bowers stars as Charley MacNeesha and is also listed as a director on Wikidata. It runs 19 minutes.

Themes

  • A haunted New York house
  • A detective with a bug in a matchbox
  • Objects that move by themselves
  • Fuzz-Faced Phantom
  • Charley MacNeesha
  • MacGregor
  • Scotland Yard
  • Frisbie house

Making

Bowers mixes live action with stop-motion so the bug and the household objects move on their own.

Technique

Stop-motion is used for MacGregor and for objects that move when nobody is touching them.

Preservation

In 2004 it was selected for the National Film Registry. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.

Notes

  • Kathryn McGuire, Melbourne MacDowell, and Buster Brodie are in the cast. Blue Washington is also billed.
  • MacGregor is a stop-motion bug kept in a matchbox.
  • The phantom's gags include eggs that hatch into full-grown chickens and trousers that dance.
  • The Librarian of Congress named it to the National Film Registry in 2004.

Scenes

  • A full-grown chicken hatches from an egg.
  • A pair of pants dances across the room.
  • MacNeesha opens the matchbox and MacGregor comes out.

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (There It Is (1928).webm)