Good Sport, The (1918)
** (out of 4)
How smart is it to make a comedy without any laughs? Apparently the writers and this Edison short that it was a good idea. A rich woman (Florence Fair) turns her back on her rich father when he refuses to give her permission to marry the poor inventor (James Montgomery Flagg) she loves. The two are eventually married and stricken to poverty until he comes up with a way to create an elevator that stops even with the floor. Yes, that's pretty much all there is to this 13-minute short. I'm still rather confused how they could sell this thing as a comedy as there's not a single funny moment to be found in it. Also, it's not like they were trying funny gags that simply weren't working. No, instead I couldn't see a single frame where it even appeared they were attempting anything funny. I guess watching the woman go to work and see the man struggle raising the baby could have been an attempt but if so it wasn't funny. The first ten-minutes are pretty much nothing more than showing us what a loser the husband is and then we see him make a comeback yet the film completely overlooks how he actually made this invention. For silent film buffs only.