Stubs - Leap Year (1924)

Leap Year (1924) Starring Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Mary Thurman, Lucien Littlefield, Harriet Hammond, Clarence Geldart. Directed by Roscoe Arbuckle, James Cruze. Screenplay by Sarah Y. Mason, Walter Woods No Producer Credited. Run time: 56 minutes. Black and White. USA. Silent, Comedy

Though finished in 1921, Leap Year would not get released in the United States until 1981. This was due to the scandal that would strike star, Fatty Arbuckle, a few months after he completed this film in connection with the death of actress Virginia Rappe following a Labor Day party Arbuckle was hosting at the Hotel St. Francis in San Francisco.

Charged with rape and manslaughter in connection with Rappe’s death from a ruptured bladder, Arbuckle had three trials in connection with the charges. The first two would end in mistrials, but the third would end on April 12, 1922 with a jury acquittal. In addition to the verdict, the jury released a statement, “Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle. We feel that a great injustice has been done to him … there was not the slightest proof adduced to connect him in any way with the commission of a crime. He was manly throughout the case and told a straightforward story which we all believe. We wish him success and hope that the American people will take the judgment of fourteen men and women that Roscoe Arbuckle is entirely innocent and free from all blame.”

Despite the jury’s sentiments, by 1923, after most theaters refused to run his films due to the scandal, Paramount had shelved the film, as well as two other films he had already finished, The Life of the Party (1921) and Brewster's Millions (1921) in the US. But the studio did release Leap Year overseas, the first being Finland on April 27, 1924.

Should a Man Marry, the film’s original title, went before cameras on Catalina Island in late May, 1921 and had a four-week shoot. The title changed in August, 1921 to This Is So Sudden, and again in September to Skirt Shy. Leap Year  would be the name it would be released under in Europe.

Despite the title, Leap Year, has nothing to do with the additional day added to the Georgian calendar every quadrennial.

The film opens with a title card, "The opening scene of the trouble is a long shot of Piper Hall, with a doctor approaching the house. Cutting inside, we find the patient - gouty, grouchy and a girl-hater. Inside Piper Hall, an aging bachelor millionaire Jeremiah Piper (Lucien Littlefield) laid up in bed. A doctor is attending to him." As a title card informs us, one of his legs and his nephew don’t work. Even though Jeremiah’s nurse Phyllis Brown (Mary Thurman) is a woman, Jeremiah hates the opposite sex. He is also concerned that his nephew, Stanley (Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle) doesn’t feel the same way. In fact, his sole heir, as he tells the doctor tending to him, falls in love with every woman he sees.

Stanley Piper ( Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle) tries to tell Phyllis Brown
(Mary Thurman) that he loves her, but she doesn't believe him.

That’s not exactly true, as Stanley only has eyes for Phyllis. While Stanley is out picking roses for her, with his faithful British valet, Mumford (Jack McKinnon), Jeremiah fires her. His doctor has recommended that he spend time at a health spa, so Jeremiah dismisses his nurse. He also plans to send Stanley on a “fishing trip” to Catalina Island, while he’s away, hoping to keep him away from women.

When Stanley returns to the house with the roses, Phyllis is already packed. Even though Stanley professes his love for her, she has overheard from his uncle and believes Stanley is a "trifler" of women’s affections. Stanley is a stutterer when he’s nervous, which is manifested on screen as him jumping up and down until he gets a drink (water). He stammers his love to Phyllis as she leaves, but she demands proof.

When Stanley arrives at a fashionable Catalina Island hotel, there are plenty of women around. Stanley runs into a middle-aged friend, Scott Travis (Clarence Geldert), who has brought his young mistress, Loris Keene (Harriet Hammond), to the island while his stern wife stays home. Loris flirts with Stanley, but Scott hurries her away. There is also a strange thin man who keeps an eye on them.

While golfing, Stanley runs into Molly Morris (Gertrude Short).

On the hotel golf course, Stanley is held up by a feuding young couple, Tommy Blaine (Allen Durnell) and Molly Morris (Gertrude Short) on the hole in front of him. Tommy storms off and Molly seeks consoling words from Stanley. They appear to be old friends, having run in the same circles. Stuttering as he tries to express his own thwarted love for Phyllis, Stanley gives Molly the impression he is proposing to her, and she immediately wants to marry him.

Even though he doesn't ask, Molly accepts Stanley's proposal.

Nervous Stanley grabs his black child who is caddying for him and runs away. He plans to leave the island and gets Mumford to start packing, but is stopped by Scott. The missus has sent a telegram that she’s changed her mind and is coming on the next boat. Scott asks Stanley to pretend that Loris is his girlfriend, at least for as long as Mrs. Travis (Winifred Greenwood) is on the island. Apparently, Stanley’s reputation with the ladies is well known, as Mrs. Travis hopes her husband stays away from the bad influence.

Again, Stanley doesn't ask, but Loris Keene (Harriet Hammond) accepts his proposal.

Alone on the beach with Loris, Stanley stutters as he tries to explain his ill-fated love for Phyllis, but Loris thinks he is proposing to her and accepts. Stanley gets nervous and, needing water, runs into the ocean and swims away.

Per the title card, “We now come to a full shot of the Rutherford yacht at anchor.” Another old friend, Irene Rutherford (Maude Wayne), and her mother see Stanley in the water and invite him to come aboard. Alone with Irene, who is single and looking for a husband, Stanley once again tries to describe his predicament to Irene, but when he stammers that he’s in love, she misconstrues his distress as a proposal of marriage and accepts. Once again nervous, Stanley leaps overboard and swims away.

Back home at Piper Hall, Mumford delivers Stanley a letter from his uncle reiterating his demand that Stanley avoid women, but that he’s also coming home, having recovered at the spa. At that moment, Tommy Blaine arrives at the estate, threatening to kill Stanley if he is only trifling with Molly’s affections.

No sooner does he leave than there is a knock at the door. With Mumford’s help, Stanley tries to pretend that he’s sick and bedridden when the three women—Loris, Molly, and Irene—arrive separately. When each hears that he’s ill, they ask why they weren’t told, each claiming to be Stanley’s fiancée.

Stanley tries to keep the women separate, sending each on an errand in the mansion. Loris, who has a dog with her, to the kitchen for water, Irene to the closet for pills, etc.

Scott Travis (Clarence Geldert) comes looking for Loris.

As if to complicate things, Scott arrives, looking for Loris. He doesn’t appear to be happy to find her there with Stanley. The two have a brief fight, but when Loris confesses her love for Stanley, Scott offers to step aside. As soon as Loris is out of the room, Stanley asks Scott to help him not to commit “trigamy.”

Stanley Piper: Scott, do you want to see me go to jail for bigamy, or t-t-trigamy?

Scott agreed to help and suggests that Stanley throw fits to show the women that he has an affliction. However, when Stanley goes into his act and flops on the floor, each woman refuses to leave him in his hour of need and promises to take care of him.

Next, Scott tells Stanley to call a nurse and applies pancake makeup to give his face a sickly appearance.

To throw a wrench into things, Uncle Jeremiah returns, sprightly and rejuvenated by the spa’s treatments. When Jeremiah finds women in the bedrooms, Stanley explains that Scott Travis is a doctor and the women are his patients, who are suffering “home-brew” poisoning.

Meanwhile, Phyllis Brown arrives as Stanley’s nurse and again he pledges his love, but when she sees the other women, she accuses him of “trifling” and leaves.

A letter arrives from England for Mumford informing him that he has inherited his family title and is now Lord Mumford and he quits his job as Stanley’s valet. Scott then pretends to be as, one by one, representatives of the other women arrive with a marriage certificate and a person to wed them; Irene’s mother, Tommy Blaine for Molly, and Loris’s Press Agent (Sidney Bracey), the same man who had been watching her on Catalina.

Lord Mumford, having joined high society, makes a play for Irene Rutherford, who accepts his offer of marriage. The newly energized Jeremiah Piper takes a liking to beautiful Loris, and she accepts his offer of marriage. And Tommy reconciles with Molly.

Molly tells Stanley that she's going to marry Tommy.

As Stanley tries to ask Phyllis to marry him, he stutters, but she pours him a glass of water and he gets out the words. She tries to stutter her answer, pours another glass for herself, and accepts his proposal.

I found the film to be uneven. The beginning was funny at times.

One thing that makes the film funny are the title cards, which sometimes read like a shooting script. For example, at the beginning, a card reads: “The opening scene of the trouble is a long shot of Piper Hall, with a doctor approaching the house.” The star is introduced: “A close-up of ROSCOE ARBUCKLE.” Other cards read: “We almost forgot to introduce Stanley’s valet, Mumford”; “The next location is picturesque Catalina Island”; “We now come to a full shot of the Rutherford yacht at anchor”; “After a time lapse to the next day, we’re back in Piper Hall—“; and finally, from Arbuckle’s character, “Let’s have a fade-out without the usual clinch [embrace].”

However, once the film returns to Piper Hall, it starts to drag. Maybe it’s because I’m watching this over a hundred years after it was made, but the running around with the three women in different rooms seems to be cliché. The joke gets old and the set up takes goes on too long to reach their conclusion.

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.

This is the second Arbuckle film I’ve seen, the other being Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916), and so far I don’t see the comedic genius that propelled him to be a star. The choice to show stuttering as a physical attribute may have made sense since the film was silent, but instead it makes Stanley appear to be throwing a fit like a child. Maybe I’m expecting too much, but he isn’t strong enough to make it funny.

Two of his co-stars, Harriet Hammond and Mary Thurman, were, like Arbuckle, former Mack Sennett actresses. Hammond, who had at one time tried to be a concert pianist, began her film career as one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties. She plays Loris Keene, the wannabe movie star, and she is pretty enough to carry off the role. Her career in films would last until sound came in.

Mary Thurman

Thurman, who played Nurse Phyllis Brown, also got her start as one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties. Her career, though short, would include 60 films starting in 1915. Her work with director Allan Dwan would produce some critically acclaimed films including The Sin of Martha Queed (1921) and A Broken Doll (1921). Off screen Thurman and Dwan were engaged for several years. In 1924, while working on the film Down Upon the Suwanee River in Florida, Thurman came down with a serious case of pneumonia. She would spend the next year suffering from illness and would lose her life to the disease at the end of 1925.

I’m not sure why they called this film Leap Year and I would not recommend it. Maybe if it had been a two-reeler and not a feature, it might have worked better. Some funny moments, but not enough to fill an hour.