User Reviews

One of almost 150 Robinet shorts made by Spanish comic Marcel Perez over three years, so the quality of the humour isn't high. He plays a lover who disguises himself as a woman when the husband of his girlfriend (the rather fetching Nilde Baracchi) arrives home unexpectedly, but then finds himself harassed by every man s/he passes on the street.

This brief comedy features Marcel Perez, former circus clown and stage comedian. At this point in his career he was churning out comedies in Turin, Italy, and his screen character was known as "Robinet" or "Tweedledum," depending on where one saw the films. Like his fellow pioneer Max Linder, Perez explored basic comic ideas in these early efforts, simple situations easily conveyed in the silent medium. Perez, also like Linder, found lots of juicy material in relations between the sexes, and both men relished farcical situations involving infidelity, jealousy, and lots of frantic dashing about in bedrooms.

In this amusing short known as "Miss Tweedledum" (or variations thereof), our hero finds it necessary to dress up in drag. Why? Well, because he was busy romancing a married woman, only to be interrupted when her husband unexpectedly returned. Naturally he's left with no choice but to hide in the bedroom, don lady's clothing, and claim to be the wife's gal pal. This fools the husband, so much so that he is immediately attracted to his wife's friend, and openly flirts with her. Robinet is forced to head for home still wearing woman's clothing, topped by a goofy hat that looks like an inverted flower pot. Unfortunately for him, his disguise is so convincing that every guy who sees him along the way is instantly smitten, makes a pass, and follows close behind. Eventually Robinet stops off at the police station and demands that police protect him from all the mashers. The cops obligingly provide an escort, but they too are taken with the lady, and twirl their mustaches roguishly as they march her homeward.

Something tells me that even in 1912 this situation was already familiar to audiences, but Perez and his supporting players throw themselves into it with vigor. Is it still funny, more than a century after it was produced? One's mileage may vary, of course, and a lot depends on how much the individual viewer appreciates drag routines, but personally I enjoyed it. There's something inherently funny about seeing a tomcat get a taste of his own medicine. Plus, a bonus this film provides for historically minded viewers is the glimpse of vintage fashions, along with a few nicely composed shots of beautiful downtown Turin. It looks to me as though the finale of the film is missing, which means we're denied the wrap-up gag (if there was one), but as it stands, "Miss Tweedledum" concludes with a deftly executed police march, sort of a mini-parade, which ends the surviving footage on an amusing note.

Marcel Perez went on to make longer, funnier and more elaborate films, but this one serves as a pleasant introduction to this long-forgotten comedian.