Alice Helps the Romance

A very strong Alice cartoon as the movie concentrates on Julius, with Alice relegated to a small but key role. Julius goes courting, but another suitor is favored, so he decides to commit suicide -- just to give you an idea of how standards about what is appropriate for kiddie cartoons have changed in eighty years -- and consistently fails. The gags are well timed and many seem to be lifted from Harold Lloyd comedies -- Harold also had a propensity for trying to kill himself in his days in short subjects.

Although none of the Alice in Movieland shorts are world beaters, some are very pleasant silent cartoons and this is one of the better ones.