Cinevent Restrospective: The Crackerjack (1925)

We will be blogging about films that were shown at past Cinevent conventions until the Picture Show in May. This week we review a movie shown in 1985 & 2005.

RODNEY BOWCOCK: Johnny Hines is Tommy “Crackerjack” Perkins, who after working his way through college in a diner finds himself back running the business of his uncle, Perkins Pickles. It’s not doing so well, but Tommy has a can-do attitude and stumbles upon the idea of stuffing the pickles with cheese and dubbing the product Perkins Stuffed Pickles. It’s a good idea, right? I suppose it may be. Your mileage may vary on that, but a South American revolutionary likes the idea, so much so, that he orders a giant shipment of the pickles changing the stuffing from cheese to bullets.

SAMANTHA GLASSER: The methods that Tommy uses to entice new customers aren’t all entirely above board. He bribes some kids to insinuate that buyers of the stuffed pickles could find treasure inside. It turns out that some of the pickles did have a surprise, contraband. A different kind of contraband would put a whole new spin on the term “getting pickled.”

RB: There are a lot of really funny gags as Tommy promotes the business usually revolving around his clever ways of getting promotional materials in the hands of people to garner up talk about the stuffed pickles. He also spends some time masquerading as the leader of a South American country in a classic case of mistaken identity that can really only happen in a silent comedy.

SG: The general sensibility of this movie is silly and fun.

RB: Hines is a likable character in this movie. In his 2005 piece on this movie, Cinevent co-founder Steven Haynes likened him to Douglas Fairbanks without the acrobatics, or Harold Lloyd without the daredevil stunts. I also see some shades of Charley Chase here, although I admit that I find Chase better.

SG: Motion Picture News wrote, “The outstanding highlights of the picture occur during the last reels when Hines gets mixed up in one of those ‘Red Hot Romance’ types of revolution. His masquerade as a ‘greaser’ general, the dance number he does with the vampire, the pole vaulting stunt with the rebel army chasing him, his rescue of the heroine, ‘and others too numerous to mention’ round out a picture that is well balanced as regards humor, pathos, romance and melodrama.”

Undercrank released this film early in their existence, but it is now out of print. The print I saw streaming online was atrocious and most of the title cards were so dim they were illegible, which is unfortunate, because there are a lot of intertitles. Moving Picture World praised John Krafft for his work, saying, “Pepped up to the minute, Krafft’s titles not only explained but actually talked wit that went over every time with a bang.”

RB: I also did not have the Undercrank release available for appraisal, but I did have a Grapevine release that wasn’t great by any means, but seems to be better than what you found online. MOST of the titles were legible anyway.

SG: Johnny Hines and his siblings worked in vaudeville. He began working in films in the 10s and by 1920 began a stint in a popular short comedy series playing Torchy. The Silent Clowns author Walter Kerr described him as a mixture of Eddie Cantor and George M. Cohan with "an appetite for the whimsically improbable." He is dismissive of his films, saying, "They weren't built for gags, good or bad ones; they were built for speed." I think that's why this film would go over well with a modern audience which is conditioned to expect a frenetic pace from entertainment.

RB: If an audience were acclimated to the large amount of brownface in this movie, I think they’d have a good time with it. The gags are fast and furious, while not particularly innovative.

SG: This film was made for C.C. Burr Productions, the last on his contract before moving to First National. Location shooting began in January, first in Florida for three weeks with the interiors being completed later at Jackson Studios in the Bronx.

RB: Variety noted that this was a good business move for First National because exhibitors were going to be able to get this feature for less than they’d be paying in a short time, but because the film was so good, they’d be willing to pay more for Hines’ product from a major studio, most of which is sadly lost as far as I can tell.

SG: Nearly 1000 people attended the premiere on May 8, 1925 at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

George T. Pardy for Exhibitors Trade Review said, “The laughs have been handed out with a lavish hand, and there is an abundance of mirth-making situations for a half dozen good comedies.”

Photoplay wrote, “This is Johnnie's best effort to date. The shrieks of hysterical laughter that greeted this comedy is proof that it lives up to the title.”

RB: The New York Times felt that this was a “Fast and furious story, farcical but not always as funny as it might be… while viewing the production one appreciates that Mr. Hines is a quick-witted and impetuous comedian, who seems to gather ideas as he proceeds.”

SG: Cinevent ran this film in 1985 and 2005, and it is still pretty obscure. They also ran Luck (1923) in 1988, The Live Wire (1925) in 1989, Little Johnny Jones (1923) in 2007, and Burn ‘Em Up Barnes (1921) in 2014, so someone must’ve been a fan and collected prints of Hines’ films and made them available to the convention.

RB: There are few movies that aren’t Laurel and Hardy shorts that received a strong enough response that they were brought back for an encore presentation. It’s understandable. I attended the 2005 event, but did not see this presentation. I regret it. I bet it played wonderfully with an audience. Four stars.

SG: I think I would award this four stars if I could see it restored with a good score with an audience, but the quality of the print I saw was so bad I can’t give it more than three.