User Reviews

Made the same year the first Lincoln Penny was minted, this slapstick comedy is very basic & very short. It does seem a bit choppy but being 1909, it could have been made this way deliberately by Essayne or it might have lost a bit of footage in over 100 years.

Behn Turpin is the ultimate sexual harasser in this. What is amazing is the aggressiveness of the actresses in stopping his advances. While using the slap-sick techniques of a pie in the face, electronic shock, seltzer bottle, etc, one scene has Mr Flip advance on one woman & have two women work together to throw him out, literally.

I sense that Mr Flip favors massaging chins & the back of the neck. In at least one sequence, his groping goes beyond that before he is aggressively beaten away. These women are more aggressive than women in the 1960's but that might be because there weren't birth control pills in 1909. That makes defending your body more important to a woman then.

This is an interesting exercise as this was an era before censors got into the act on films which makes me wonder if any adult films dated back this far & how they would be different than this farce?

Pies in faces would always get a laugh in early comedy films. Pies were part of comedy skits way back during the vaudeville days. Besides a couple of obscure cases in earlier films, though, the act using the food dessert was never popularized in movies. That is until Essanay Studio's May 1909 release of "Mr. Flip," with Ben Turpin. The comedian here is a touchy-feely lecher who accosts every women he meets, trying to kiss and fondle them during several skits presented within this short. Every single time, however, he is not only rejected but gets paybacks over his bad behavior. The final scenario shows Turpin attempting to plant a kiss on a women working behind a diner counter. She picks up a pie sitting on the countertop and smashes it into his face. Besides being the recipient of the first acknowledged pie in the face in film, Ben Turpin had also been the first screen actor whose name appeared in print--signing his appellation to an article in a trade journal as well as being named in a movie review, all in 1909. The "star" system, where the public would pay to see well-known personalities act in a movie, had not taken hold yet. In 1909 and before, only lower-ranked stage actors were hired for these nickelodeon movies. The well-known ones either didn't want to be associated with these films, or the more popular ones were forbidden by their contracted theaters. But slowly that would change.

This gem of a film begins with Ben Turpin being in the general vicinity of a woman and finding himself apparently obligated to put his hand under her chin. I'm assuming that this must have been Ben's "bit" because the rest of the film utterly refuses to deviate from this premise. Ben uses a phone, and touches the neck of the operator. Ben goes to a bar and keeps touching the neck of the lady bartender. And so on and so forth. And why not?

This raises several questions, such as: Why does Ben always do this? Has he been hypnotized? Is he trying to check their pulse? Maybe he's constantly fighting the urge to touch them and is secretly ashamed of his behaviour. In any event, the movie remains very objective about his motivations, other than to repeatedly press the point that Ben touches the necks of every woman he sees, and that none of them seem to care for it.

The next obvious question is why are there no other men? Has Ben stumbled upon a secret city (or possibly shopping mall) of amazons? If so, what is its purpose? The only other man is a second fellow being shaved by a woman, and who objects strenuously when his shaver leaves to help subdue Ben and his neck-touching way.

I like to think that Ben's character was a vampire scouting out potential victims. In either event, I gave the film a ten because it seemed so utterly ridiculous and unashamed for being so completely nonsensical. Luis Bunuel ain't got NOTHING on this. My only complaint is that there are no close-ups of Turpin's trademark cross-eyed, pin-headed visage. But again, this is trumped by the utter lack of plot or even the frailest attempt at coherency. A must see for all fans of movies which are under fifteen minutes long and leave you thinking "Huh?"

Mr. Flip is a sexual harassing fool. Everywhere he goes, he harasses and puts his hands all over the ladies working various jobs. However, in each and every case, Flip has the tables turned and he is electrocuted, beaten up and has a pie tossed in his face (among other things)--so the film is not trying to justify Flip's actions but laugh at his getting a dose of his own medicine, so to speak.

This little comedy stars Ben Turpin, though it's hard to recognize him, as he's earlier and the trademark crossed eyes are not evident. While I see the film has a rather low score, I think this isn't fair, as for 1909 this is a very good comedy. Sure, the cuts between scenes are very abrupt and the sets are rather cheaply painted--but for this era, this isn't really so bad. The silent comedies we've come to love over the years were almost all made well after 1909--so blaming this one for lacking polish isn't really appropriate. In this context, this movie is very rewarding...and funny.

Perhaps this film was also made in an effort to poke fun at the rising number of women in the workplace--especially since several of these workers are doing very male-oriented sorts of jobs (such as being barbers).