The Million Dollar Derby

Al Alt will get a million dollars if he wears a particular hat for six months. It's a sort of a too-small, soft-felt derby with a very large panache. In the first half of this movie, he keeps losing it and having to recover it. In the second half, he tries to get on the good side of his girl friend's father (who owns a hat shop) by making this mildly ridiculous hat the latest fashion in a style that is highly reminiscent of Harold Lloyd's NEVER WEAKEN.

Hats for men as fashion has been out of fashion for fifty years now, so the modern viewer may well be put off by the whole hullabaloo. Nonetheless, it is a good collection of gags, competently if occasionally mechanically rendered under the direction of former comedy player Bobby Ray.

As for Mr. Alt, he had entered the movies as a supporting screen comic in 1921. His on-screen appearances ends, by and large, in the last days of silent movies. At that point, he moved behind the camera, eventually becoming a well regarded assistant director. He retired in 1959 and died in 1992, aged 84 years.