Flicker Fever

George Chandler takes his three daughters out to Hollywood, figuring they're cinches to become stars. Six months later, they're not.

Mack Sennett had lost his studio by this point, and was making this for Educational Pictures, with a lot of it shot by the pool in his estate. Although his films had been in decline since the coming of sound, he was also beset by the general economics of the industry. Sound pictures were a lot more expensive, and the techniques that looked good in silent comedy didn't translate well at the realistic speeds demanding by the newer medium. Tired scripts, and a declining box office take meant that the major studios began producing their own short comedies, further cutting into grosses. Roach would abandon short subjects the following year, Educational would be folded into 20th Century-Fox in 1939, and the Christies would be absorbed into Paramount.

Not that a poor film like this could help. Two of the girls do poor imitations of movie and radio personalities, Kenneth Howell falls into a pool, and there a couple of automobile crashes that happen too quickly to admit of any humor.

Sennett would produce and direct three more shorts over the next year, then give up.