Toot Sweet!
1929 • 20 min • United States
The new technology of sound films proved to be a career-booster for silent clown Lloyd Hamilton, who'd suffered from various personal and professional difficulties during the last days of the silent era. The good news for Ham was that he had a decent speaking voice, low and a bit raspy, that suited his Born Loser screen persona. In some of his early talkies, such as Don't Be Nervous, he came close to capturing the spirit of his silent work and used sound cleverly. Toot Sweet! is something of a disappointment however, for although the basic premise is very much the sort of thing Ham did in his silent comedies, the result, after a promising opening sequence, is strangely flat and unsatisfying. Ultimately this film is a good example of a style of comedy that worked in silent cinema but didn't properly translate to the brave new world of talkies.The story is simple: Ham is interested in a girl named Marie and wants to impress her. First he buys a car—a used one, quite battered, with fenders that flap in the breeze—and then he takes her out to a swanky nightclub. The bulk of the film is set in the club, which features attractive Art Deco décor and a swinging jazz band. But in the course of this disastrous date Ham realizes that Marie isn't the nice girl he thought she was: she only went out with him to make her real boyfriend jealous. The boyfriend is an Apache dancer at the club, and when she sees him kissing his dance partner she becomes enraged and smashes up the place, wh