The Wrong Mr. Fox

Movie buffs tend to remember Victor Moore as a comic character actor, an older fellow who brightened a number of films with his presence, mostly comedies or musicals made between the mid-1930s and mid-'50s. He was Fred Astaire's pudgy sidekick in Swing Time, the justice of the peace in We're Not Married, and the plumber in The Seven Year Itch, the latter two with Marilyn Monroe. Theater historians know that Victor Moore was a prominent stage star from the first decade of the twentieth century, hitting his peak in the '30s with featured roles in several hit Broadway musicals. What is perhaps not so well remembered is that Moore also starred in a series of silent comedies for Paramount during 1916-17, several of which he wrote, and one of which, The Wrong Mr. Fox, is a memorable comedy that can hold its own against the formidable competition of its era.

Charlie Chaplin may well have seen this, for his 1923 film The Pilgrim has a similar plot. In Chaplin's telling, our hero is an escaped convict who masquerades as the new minister in a small town; in Moore's, he's a starving actor named Fox heading for an acting job in a town called Canaan, who crosses paths with a minister, also named Fox, who is traveling to a new parish in a different town also called Canaan. Okay, so Moore's plot is more than a little far-fetched, but the exposition moves so briskly you don't have much time to question it. The comic highlight of both The Pilgrim and The Wrong Mr. Fox is the first sermon delivered by the new "minister" to his startled flock. Both scenes are great, but I think Moore's is even funnier than Chaplin's, especially the way he lures the congregation into swaying in time to his movements, until they're practically doing an early version of 'The Wave.' Watching Moore today, one is reminded not so much of Chaplin as of W. C. Fields, whom Moore slightly resembles. Fields would have been quite comfortable in the Jimmie Fox role, and one can imagine him performing such business as stealing a bottle of milk from his landlady as he sneaks out of her establishment, or taking the church collection plate after directing the congregation's attention elsewhere. Like Fields, however, Moore isn't a total scoundrel -- or a very successful one, either: the stolen milk bottle breaks in his satchel, and the collection plate money is left behind when he makes his escape. As a bumbling rascal, Moore, like Fields, retains our sympathy.

There are a number of nice comic moments in The Wrong Mr. Fox, but there is also a surprisingly macabre sequence at the beginning, when the depressed and destitute Jimmie Fox attempts suicide by sucking gas from an outlet. He is interrupted by the landlady bringing word of his new job, and promptly dismisses the thought of killing himself, but then finds to his embarrassment that his breath now causes nearby flames (in cigarette lighters and the like) to flare up alarmingly. Thus, the downbeat opening scene turns into an amusing running gag. Still, it's strange to note how often the 'botched suicide attempt' was played for laughs in silent comedies; Harold Lloyd used this motif repeatedly. And it's especially disturbing to learn that Harry Jackson, this film's producer/director, died by suicide in reality a few years afterward. On a happier note, however, Victor Moore lived well into his 80s, and was still appearing on stage as late as 1960.

The Wrong Mr. Fox is a clever comedy that deserves to be better known. Intrepid searchers can find it on video and DVD as part of Kino's "Slapstick Encyclopedia" series, and in various other silent comedy collections.