Back in the early days of film, John Bunny was one of the first comedy stars, if not the first. However, sadly, nearly all his films have disappeared....due to the effects of aging on the very unstable nitrate prints. Here in "Troublesome Secretaries" (available on YouTube), he's teamed up with Mabel Normand in one of her first films.
The story is a relatively complex one for 1911, when MOST comedies were very, very short and featured tons of slapstick violence....quite unlike this one. Bunny plays a businessman who is annoyed. One of his secretaries fell in love with his daughter (Normand) and he fired him. The next was a lady and she fell for Bunny! So, he decides to hire an old one...and the original returns dressed like a dottering old man. Sadly, the end of the movie seems to be missing.
While I would not consider this a film of comedy genius, it is well made and thankfully is not just mindless bonking and shooting like too many comedies of the day. But missing the finale...that makes watching this one troublesome and it's a shame that few other Bunny moives exist.