Mack Sennett is known mostly for his slapstick comedies he made at Keystone Studios in the 1910s. However, he eventually lost the studio and was forced to find work elsewhere...landing at Educational Pictures where he made various short comedies. A few of these were pretty good...most seemed to be second-rate and very little like his earlier work. "Flicker Fever" is among the last films he made at Educational.
The story is about the Adams family and the father (George Chandler) trying to get his daughters into films. But after moving to California, they've sat for six months and have had no job offers. Suddenly, out of the blue, Incredible Pictures calls and says they would like to see the oldest daughter, Agnes, as soon as possible. So dad goes looking for her at a pool party...and thoroughly makes a mess of everything. But what about his youngest? What are her prospects?
There are two huge problems with this film. First, it's really not funny and the writing was disappointing. Second, these two 'talented' girls really aren't all that talented. Watching both do imitations of famous stars was not all that satisfying. The youngest was pretty good with her impersonations, though I found it creepy that this 8 year-old (give or take a year) was impersonating Mae West...a character about as child unfriendly as you could find back in 1935. Seeing the child sashaying about trying to look sexy is just creepy...much like Educational Pictures "War Babies" where they made 3 year-old Shirley Temple a sexy vamp! Today, this sort of thing just makes you think how much pedos would love the films! As for the older daughter, her impersonation of Zasu Pitts was pretty good but the rest, especially her impersonations of male actors, were god-awful at best. All in all, a film that left me wondering what happened to the humor. After all, it was supposed to be a comedy but wasn't and featured some routines that really didn't show off these talented kids' talents to their fullest.