User Reviews

Slim Summerville and Bobby Dunn are rivals for the love of Esther Ralston. That's the summation of this Universal one-reel comedy, and it provides the typical basis of silent comedy.

Summerville and Dunn had both started with Sennett, but by the time this movie came out, they were a Mutt-and-Jeff comedy pair for Universal. It's the only known survival of their series there.

Summerville had a high profile career through his death in the middle of the 1940s, with a great supporting role in ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Dunn's career slid in late silent movies and never recovered.Miss Ralston went to Paramount, where she had a major role in the silent PETER PAN.

THE RIVALS (1923) features the comedy team of Slim Summerville and Bobby Dunn. I searched in the Media Digital History websites for reviews of this hilarious film, but could only find one in The Film Daily that called it "fairly amusing". Summerville and Dunn are Roman soldiers who fight a duel. Bobby Dunn is at a great disadvantage because Slim is so tall and his arms are so long. Their swordplay ends with one very funny bizarre gag, but I won't spoil it here. The camera pulls back, and we see that they are in a movie studio making a film. The director is not very happy that they ruined the scene AND the leading lady. Leaving the set, both guys hot-foot it over to their girlfriends' house, as they are both in love with the lovely Esther Ralston (in a very early role). After delaying each other as much as possible, they both make it into her bedroom. Her father is not about to let them romance his daughter, so it is a three-way struggle to see who wins the beautiful Esther. This film was packed full of inventive gags and is guaranteed to make you laugh. Sadly, this may be the only surviving short where Dunn and Summerville were teamed together.