A seal, a sham marriage, and a dying uncle's will—1920s chaos at its finest.
Freddy Wetherill and his bride, Hyla, quarrel at her mother's beach cottage, and Hyla sends her new husband home alone. Seeking distraction from his troubles, Freddy enters a vaudeville theater where Undine, "the diving Venus," and her trained seal, Bubbles, are performing. Outside the theater, Freddy meets Undine's fiancé, George Fitzgerald, and becomes involved in George's effort to hide Undine's seal from a bill collector armed with an order of attachment because of an unpaid hotel bill. Complications arise when Freddy Wetherill's dying rich uncle, Cato Dodd, notifies him that he wants Hyla to nurse him. To insure he stays in his uncle's will, Freddy substitutes Undine for Hyla and takes George along to act as his "valet." Naturally, Bubbles comes along, too. This movie is presumed to be lost.
Acting
Ford Sterling's expressive silent comedy chops.
Practical Effects
A trained seal named Bubbles stealing every scene.
Director
Del Andrews
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This film captures peak 1920s vaudeville-to-cinema crossover energy, with trained animal acts as legitimate box office draws.
Presumed lost since the 1960s; no known prints survive in any archive, making this review essentially a ghost story.
US
