The Wrong Mr. Fox

The short comedy "The Wrong Mr. Fox" does a decent job with the premise of mistaken identity - hardly an uncommon idea in the era, but one that can set up some amusing situations when it is used well. After a rather slow start, this one picks up and delivers some worthwhile, if often predictable, laughs. It has the easygoing feel that enable so many of the short comedies of the era to remain enjoyable even when the material is largely familiar.

Victor Moore plays the main character, who is an actor named Mr. Fox, and it's certainly among Moore's own better roles. The premise is that his character and another Mr. Fox get mixed up on the way to their new positions, with each of them winding up in an unexpected situation. The first couple of sequences focus a lot of attention on a running gag that doesn't really work all that well, but when the main action starts, it works all right. Eventually it runs out of steam, but while it lasts it's amusing enough to be worth watching.