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Pimple in 'The Whip' (1917)
 

BFI

Main image of Pimple in 'The Whip' (1917)
 
35mm, black and white, silent, 1302 feet
 
DirectorFred Evans
 Joe Evans
Production CompanyPiccadilly

Cast: Fred Evans (Pimple/Lord Elpus); Joe Evans (Lord For-Givus); Nina Maxwell (Lady Bird); Phyllis Desmond (some girl)

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Lord Elpus attempts to escape penury by investing in a racehorse. But his plans are undermined by the villainous Lord For-Givus.

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This Pimple comedy is a parody of the stage spectacular racing drama The Whip, a famous Drury Lane production written by Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton, which featured at its climax an actual on-stage horse race, as well as a realistically portrayed rail crash. The play was also filmed by Maurice Tourneur in the USA in 1917. In this version, the Evans brothers make a virtue of necessity and play up the cheapness of the production for all they are worth. The train crash scene exploits the cardboard sets and incompetent stage hand to hilarious effect, and the race of pantomime horses (some with only one man inside) is splendid. You would describe this comedy as Pythonesque if it were not separated from Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC, 1969-74) by half a century.

Bryony Dixon

NOTE: An extract from this film is featured as part of 'How They Laughed', Paul Merton's interactive guide to early British silent comedy. Note that this material is not limited to users in registered UK libraries and educational establishments: it can be accessed by anyone, anywhere.

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Video Clips
Complete film (21:34)
GALLERY / SCRIPTS / AUDIO
SEE ALSO
How Pimple Saved Kissing Cup (1913)
Evans, Fred (1889-1951)
The 'Pimple' Films