Fickle Bridget (1911)
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Lee Beggs
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“Fickle Bridget” (Solax)
Critics unanimously advocate the elimination of burlesque and slap-stick from comedies. Straight comedy, of course, “comes over” stronger with the elimination of these objectionable features. There is, however, a peculiar kind of comedy of which many producers fight shy. In that peculiar style of comedy there is a slight mixture of burlesque and slap-stick, and their application in proper measure without hurting the general scheme is difficult. For this reason manufacturers are usually lukewarm in their reception of scenarios with those apparently objectionable features incorporated. Unless the story is “handled with care” its appearance on the screen is usually received with a storm of protest. If carefully produced, such comedies can come under the head of satiric comedy — or comedy with a keen edge.
Such a comedy, carefully produced, is “Fickle Bridget” — the Solax release of Friday, December 13. It is a comedy with a keen edge — because it picturesquely “shows up” striking frailties of human nature in a pointed way. It, in a subtle manner, interprets the ambitions and the aspirations of a cook from Cork, Ireland, who inherits a fortune. It brings out forcefully the servant problem, and the point of view of foreign nobility and their attitude toward matrimony and the dollar.
The plot of this story concerns a cook, who, after her inheritance of a fortune assumes “airs” which she cannot support by her limited intellect. She has ambitions as a fencer, and engages a count to teach her the art of handling foils. Her former associates and admirers, a grocer and an iceman, are not good enough for her, and she finally accepts the proposal of the count — when the iceman and the grocer show themselves up as liars and unqualified for the tender profession of love.
The situations are absurdly funny and the satire is strongly emphasized.
Collection: Moving Picture News, December 1911
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