https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0016375/I stumbled onto this and decided to make it my next review, since it came up in last month's discussion on YOU'RE NEXT!
Man, what a strange piece this is. This has to be the single most expensive
short subject I have seen. Cars modified and destroyed. Bizarre contraptions everywhere. Numerous extras used in scenes. Fires. No, folks, this isn't Larry Semon. It's Mack Sennett destruction circa 1925, particularly a Billy Bevan film.
SUPER-HOOPER-DYNE LIZZIES is a title that makes no sense to me, and I hope someone, probably Big Chief, can explain this. I understand that in the film the term "Lizzes" refers to the radio-powered cars. But the overall title mystifies me.
This is typical 1920s silent comedy fair. Evil, mustachioed, conniving romantic rivals making hair-brained plots. Framed heroes. Etc. Much of this short, despite being billed a Billy Bevan short, focuses on John Richardson and Andy Clyde, although the second half of the film is basically just Richardson and Bevan and an unknown black actor doing scare reactions. Overall, this is solid, dependable material that any decent actor could handle.
Highlights: Billy pushing the cars across town and off a cliff, the entire night time scene, albeit a bizarre and awkwardly introduced, the crazy closing scene with Billy and his "family," and the opening scene introducing the actors and the invention.
We see the scene of the frightened black man disintegrating into a pile of dust from his fear here as well. Only here it's complete with a person kicking the dust, which is conveniently black, and looking at it kind of sadly. A very bizarre gag that would probably be today panned as racist, but I still laughed at it in a macabre way.
An interesting little film from a bygone era that is well-worth watching for silent film buffs.
8/10