Clever Dummy, A
Entry updated 11 November 2024. Tagged: Film.
US silent film (1917). Keystone Film Company. Directed by Ferris Hartman, Robert P Kerr, Herman C Raymaker and Mack Sennett. Written by Mack Sennett. Cast includes Claire Anderson, James DeLano, James Donnelly and Ben Turpin. 19 minutes. Black and white.
An inventor (Donnelly) and his assistant (DeLano) build a "mechanical dummy" (see Inventions), intending to sell it as a vaudeville attraction. It is modelled on the building's janitor, Peter Clay (Turpin), who is in love with the inventor's daughter (Anderson); she, however, is in love with the assistant and this affection is reciprocated. When Clay is beaten up by the father for pestering his daughter, he hits upon the idea of impersonating the device so as to be near her. Clay as the dummy is sold and performs on stage, but the inventors discover the deception and a chase scene ensues, with a motorcycle and car both crashing through a house.
We are shown the moving cogs and wheels within the Machine's chest. A jack is plugged in to the dummy, connecting it by a narrow electrical cable to the control device that can fit inside a suitcase: it has a column of buttons labelled Arms, Legs, Head, Body, Dance, Boxing, Walk and apparently "Talk" (the first letter is obscured). We see it briefly tested early on, but it spends the rest of the film turned off. The "mechanical dummy" might be classed as a remote-controlled Automaton, relatively advanced Technology for the time. If classed as a Robot – or, given its lifelike appearance, perhaps an Android – it would appear to be the first in US Cinema. This might also be the first appearance of that minor trope, a person impersonating a robot. However, although the buttons suggest it can do more, it should be borne in mind that what we see of the dummy's performance is rather limited. [SP]
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