"Hands Up!" is the third feature I've seen starring Raymond Griffith, and it's reputed to be a lost classic that would be much better-known if it were not for its spotty availability and the fact that most of its lead's work as a starring comedian has been lost. After viewing I'd be inclined to agree with that. "Hands Up!" is hilarious and delightfully mischievous. There have also been a lot of comparisons with Buster Keaton's great feature "The General," but apart from the fact that they are both silent comedies set during the Civil War, are quite different animals.
The story here is that Griffith is a Confederate soldier who must cut off Union access to a gold mine, and in doing so he uses every unscrupulous trick in the book to extricate himself from the scrapes that come with his mission. He's not a good guy, but Griffith's enormous charisma and screen presence coupled with the ingenious quality of his plans have us rooting for him -- as in a way we wish we were him -- all the way. The movie is full of unlikely and implausible but not quiet impossible developments and gags -- in fact, it revels in them to the point where they become one of its biggest advantages.
In form, it is like a series of ingenious, semi-episodic sequences which nonetheless advance a clear story at a good pace. Griffith defeats a firing squad by tossing plates like a circus performer and painting the image of his back on the wall in one extended scene, escapes being killed by Indians by introducing the chief to dice and winning all his clothes in another, and manages to becomes engaged to both of the daughters of the mine owner -- all with wonderful comic timing and subtly of performance (I think a lot of his comedy works so well because he plays it with the same kind of plain excellent expressive acting that could have brought him equal success in drama).
Events like these pile on top of one another for a kind of triumphant whirlwind of of coincidence and double-crossing that is always surprising. One scene that's a highlight involves Griffith and the two daughters trying to catch a bee in their stagecoach -- which in a very cleverly choreographed routine keeps them from noticing they are being shot at by Indians' arrows.
And, of course, I think it's impossible not to love a film that ends with the hero deciding to move to Utah so he can marry both girls.
The story here is that Griffith is a Confederate soldier who must cut off Union access to a gold mine, and in doing so he uses every unscrupulous trick in the book to extricate himself from the scrapes that come with his mission. He's not a good guy, but Griffith's enormous charisma and screen presence coupled with the ingenious quality of his plans have us rooting for him -- as in a way we wish we were him -- all the way. The movie is full of unlikely and implausible but not quiet impossible developments and gags -- in fact, it revels in them to the point where they become one of its biggest advantages.
In form, it is like a series of ingenious, semi-episodic sequences which nonetheless advance a clear story at a good pace. Griffith defeats a firing squad by tossing plates like a circus performer and painting the image of his back on the wall in one extended scene, escapes being killed by Indians by introducing the chief to dice and winning all his clothes in another, and manages to becomes engaged to both of the daughters of the mine owner -- all with wonderful comic timing and subtly of performance (I think a lot of his comedy works so well because he plays it with the same kind of plain excellent expressive acting that could have brought him equal success in drama).
Events like these pile on top of one another for a kind of triumphant whirlwind of of coincidence and double-crossing that is always surprising. One scene that's a highlight involves Griffith and the two daughters trying to catch a bee in their stagecoach -- which in a very cleverly choreographed routine keeps them from noticing they are being shot at by Indians' arrows.
And, of course, I think it's impossible not to love a film that ends with the hero deciding to move to Utah so he can marry both girls.