Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies

Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies (1925)

*** (out of 4)

Another winner from Mack Sennett has an inventor (Andy Clyde) and his side kick (Billy Bevan) working on an experiment that would have cars run off radio waves. They finally get the thing to work but this upsets an oil magnet in town who comes to the shop one night to cause trouble only to find out it's haunted (by it's really just people dressed up). SUPER-HOOPER-DYNE LIZZIES isn't the greatest movie that Sennett turned out but it's certainly one with a lot of imagination and plenty of laughs as well. Both parts of the film actually work quite well with the first portion dealing with the rivalry between the oil man and the inventors. There are some really funny moments here including the sequence where cars start running on their own all over town and this leads to a wide range of stunts. There's one pretty wild one where a horse and carriage are crossing the road and a car slams into the bad end of the carriage. I'm not sure who trained the horse but his timing was perfect. The second half turns into a horror spoof as a wide range of "monsters" show up to scare a few people and this too offers up plenty of laughs. Both Clyde and Bevan are good in their roles and manage to help keep the film moving at a very fast pace.