Hank owns horses, stables horses and races horses. He favorite horse always wins and he is prosperous and well known. His son (Bob), however, dreams only of the future of the horseless carri... Read allHank owns horses, stables horses and races horses. He favorite horse always wins and he is prosperous and well known. His son (Bob), however, dreams only of the future of the horseless carriage and not of the horse. This causes problems between Hank and Bob. As the people in the ... Read allHank owns horses, stables horses and races horses. He favorite horse always wins and he is prosperous and well known. His son (Bob), however, dreams only of the future of the horseless carriage and not of the horse. This causes problems between Hank and Bob. As the people in the town convert from horses to autos, Hank detests those who switch - so he loses his friends... Read all
- Bob Armstrong
- (as Chas. E. Mack)
- Joe Saunders
- (uncredited)
- Livery Handler at Auction
- (uncredited)
- Townsperson Who Laughs Heartily
- (uncredited)
- Elmer Hays
- (uncredited)
- Boy
- (uncredited)
- Young Woman
- (uncredited)
- Barber
- (uncredited)
- Mrs. Stebbins
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaCharles Emmett Mack died in a car crash on his way to the studio four months prior to the release of this completed film, though he was not on his way to shoot a car chase to this film as has been often reported. Because of this unfortunate occurrence, when the film eventually was released, cast credits were rearranged, placing Barney Oldfield in top position, even though he only had a relatively short appearance in the film, and Mack was quietly placed in the bottom position, even though he was the star. [The credits for the version shown on TCM lists "Chas. E. Mack" third from the bottom with Oldfield listed last.]
- GoofsMr. Stebbins receives a letter from his insurance company canceling his policy dated 1897, but his car is a 1906 model.
- Quotes
Opening Title Card: Once upon a time, a horse was a horse... and was loved as such. This was even before Dan Patch started breaking records, or the Vanderbilt cup races had come to displace the county fair. The latest thing then was a bicycle built for two... Bryan hadn't been heard of... and a nickel was still respected -...
- Crazy credits"A Romance Of The Last Horse And The First Horseless Carriage"
- ConnectionsEdited into Gadgets Galore (1955)
- SoundtracksIn My Merry Oldsmobile
(1905) (uncredited)
Music by Gus Edwards
In the score during the opening credits, at the end and as background music
This is a patchwork of a film -- part comedy (including some old vaudeville routines. William Demerest and his clown companion are present for no other reason except comic relief. In vaudeville, the clowns in front of the curtain were there to mask the noise and movement of scenery and costume changes taking place on the stage behind the curtain.) Such clowning was obviously not necessary for the movies, but it's still there -- and we get to see what people were laughing at before stand-up monologue comedy was the only game in town.
The film is part melodrama as we see how a horse in the late 1890's could be the friend and companion of the pre-industrial era, and how the death of a man's horse could bring a man to tears. "A horse is loyal. A horse remembers! A horse knows what gratitude is!" -- words spoken by the father/livery owner who is then called a "Brute" (an animal) by his son.
With it's pre-talkie talking-and-scored soundtrack, it sometimes plays like a rough experiment in early film sound technologies (which exactly parallels the story of the first automobiles -- and how quickly they displaced the horse-centered life.) Within 3 years, silent pictures were as gone from the landscape as horse-drawn buggies. The equally experimental "special effects" fire in the engine of a moving race car isn't exactly the parting of the Red Sea -- but we still get the idea.
It also has the air of a headliner news-reel -- when surprise! Barney Oldfield, playing himself, races around the horse track so that all of America (at least those who went to the movies) could see him do what he was famous for -- speed racing!
At it's heart, however, this is a story. It is about family and about learning what matters (sometimes called family values), and of generations -- a father with both feet firmly planted in the pre-automobile age, and his son who is racing after the biggest technology of the time. They loose each other, almost loose everything else, and then find each other and move into the automobile age together -- where the father opens a car dealership and goes to the car races while the son spends his days at the horse shows. -- and "gosh, what's the world coming to next?" as a bi-plane soars overhead.
This is not a "great" movie -- but it is great fun, and a great window back both to 1927 and it's time of plenty before the stock market crashed us into the Depression; and to the 1927 recollection of 1896, when the lights of technology were just beginning to turn on. It is a wonderful piece of film history, now preserved for my great- and great-great grandchildren. --Thanks to all those doing film preservation -- we love it.
- whitlarks
- Jun 30, 2005
Details
- Runtime1 hour 15 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1