Water Wagons (1925) Online

This comedy short is about a boat race and a bad guy who is not about to be stopped in his quest to win or get the girl. He sabotages the heroes' boat and then grabs the girl. Despite not arriving in time for the start of the race, they miraculously arrive only seconds later and begin a race that is highly reminiscent of an episode of THE WACKY RACERS (a stupid cartoon from the 1960s where the evil Dick Dastardly will do ANYTHING to win). Again and again, crazy stunts come at the viewer--so fast, you barely have time to take them all in ! The story sags, a bit, because plot and characterizations are really pretty irrelevant. Instead, it's almost 100% non-stop crazed action and mayhem. I like a film like this from time to time but must admit that the film has less lasting impact because of this.

Water Wagons (1925)

*** (out of 4)

A good Captain (Andy Clyde) must go up against his rival (John J. Richardson) in a boat race and things get dirty when the Captain's daughter (Madeline Hurlock) is kidnapped by the villain. WATER WAGONS comes from Mack Sennett but if you're expecting laughs then you'll probably be disappointed. There's really not any funny moments here, which you might think would kill a comedy but it actually doesn't hurt the film too bad because we're given some terrific chases and some excellent stunts. There's even some nice trick photography and you can see a perfect example when some motorcycles and their riders fall off a cliff and we watch them crash on the ground. There are several car chases scattered throughout the first portion of the film and all of them are quite fun. The second section deals with the boat race and yes, we have plenty of stunts here as well. For the most part this is a very entertaining short that goes by extremely quickly and I'd say fans of Sennett are really going to enjoy it. The cast (which includes Sidney Smith) don't have too much to do but the thing is still fun.

Although it has some positive points to it, "Water Wagons" is brought down by its story, which starts out rather silly and does not get much better. It is uneven at best, with some sequences that are relatively funny, but others that are incomprehensible. The cast is not bad, the characters are mildly interesting, and there are a handful of decent gags, but none of these are good enough to lift it above mediocrity.

Andy Clyde stars in a dual role, and he does well enough when the material gives him half a chance. Madeline Hurlock has some presence as the daughter of one of Clyde's characters, and in fact there is a long, otherwise pointless sequence that seems to have been inserted merely as a showcase for her. Unfortunately, that sequence, as well as a couple of others, features some ragged and occasionally off-putting material.

The climactic race sequence features many gag ideas. Some of them come off all right, while others just do not work. Some of the gags in the movie are based on visual effects that cannot have been very convincing even at the time.

This is the kind of feature that was probably mildly popular in its day even though most viewers certainly realized that there were many better movies out there. At least it is unpretentious, and it simply promises a few gags, nothing more - nor does it deliver much more than that.