''A Little Bit of Fluff'' (or ''Skirts'' in the U.S.), is a 1928 British silent

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Wheeler Dryden George Dryden Wheeler Jr. (31 August 1892 – 30 September 1957), known better as Wheeler Dryden, was an English-born American actor and film director. He was the son of Hannah Chaplin and music hall entertainer Leo Dryden, and younger half- ...

and Jess Robbins and starring

Sydney Chaplin Sydney John Chaplin (; 16 March 1885 – 16 April 1965) was an English actor. Chaplin was the elder half-brother of actor and director Charlie Chaplin and served as his business manager in later life. Through their mother Hannah, they were o ...

Betty Balfour Betty Balfour (born Florence Lilian Woods; 27 March 1902 – 4 November 1977) was an English screen actress, popular during the silent era, and known as the "British Mary Pickford" and "Britain's Queen of Happiness". She was best known to au ...

and

Edmund Breon Edmund Breon (born Iver Edmund de Breon MacLaverty; 12 December 1882 – 24 June 1953) was a Scottish film and stage actor. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1907 and 1952. Life and career Born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Br ...

Synopsis

The misadventures of a young newly-wed man (Chaplin) and an exotic dancer (Balfour), the titular "little bit of fluff." Tully (Chaplin), an effete and completely mother-in-law-dominated new husband becomes unwittingly involved in boxer Hudson's plot to wrest his girlfriend's (Balfour's) $5000 necklace from her in order to pay his gambling debts. Living next door to Maggie, the exotic dancer, Tully is first introduced to her only because his mother-in-law demands that he go next door and make the noise cease—noise from one of Maggie's hedonist parties. That evening, purely by coincidence, Tully accompanies his other neighbor, John Ayres, to the club at which Maggie performs as a singer/dancer (The Little Bit of Fluff), his wife and MIL having left town to visit aunty. It is at this club that Tully accidentally acquires the necklace and so, the rest of the farce is taken up with scenes of mistaken identities, moments of being in the wrong places at the wrong times, misunderstandings with wives, stepmothers, and boxer boyfriends, etc. In the end, Hudson is arrested for trying to steal the necklace back from Tully's apartment and all falls back into order—except that Tully has NOT managed to lose his mother-in-law along the way. This film is highlighted by intricate gags, including using a pekinese puppy to moisten stamps, a fantastic spinning headstand by Chaplin, and, perhaps, marred a bit by a lack of plot and an unbearably long scene at the nightclub in which Chaplin mistakes a female "little person" for a little girl. This film definitely follows along well from the sort of character Chaplin created in his Warner Brothers contract—a winning one for him.

Cast

: Bertram Tully *

: Mamie Scott *

: John Ayres * Nancy Rigg: Violet Tully * Clifford McLaglen: Henry Hudson *

Annie Esmond Annie Esmond (27 September 1873 – 4 January 1945) was a British stage and film actress. Esmond was born in Surrey, England. She made her stage debut in pantomime in Sheffield in 1891 and later appeared on the American as well as British stage ...

: Aunt Agatha *

Enid Stamp-Taylor Enid Georgiana Stamp Taylor (12 June 1904 – 13 January 1946) was an English actress. Her childhood home was 17, Percy Avenue, in Whitley Bay, Northumberland, in what is now Tyne and Wear. Taylor first became known when she won a beauty pa ...

: Susie West * Cameron Carr: Fred Carter *

Haddon Mason Haddon Mason (21 February 1898 – 30 April 1966) was a British film actor. Selected filmography * ''Every Mother's Son'' (1926) * ''Dawn'' (1928) * '' The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel'' (1928) * ''The Lady of the Lake'' (1928) * '' The Woma ...

: The Wasp *

Harry McCoy Harry McCoy (December 10, 1893 – September 1, 1937) was an American film actor and screenwriter. He appeared in more than 150 films between 1912 and 1935. Early years McCoy was born on December 10, 1893, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ...

Dorothy Bartlam Dorothy Ezard Bartlam (November 8, 1907 in Goole, Yorkshire – September, 1991 in Bournemouth, Hampshire) was an English actress. Filmography * '' A Woman Redeemed'' (1927) * '' The Fake'' (1927) * '' A Little Bit of Fluff'' (1928) * '' Not ...

: Bit role (uncredited) * John Thomas Hall: The Vicar

Production

The film is based on the long running farce of the same title by Walter W. Ellis, which premiered at the

Criterion Theatre The Criterion Theatre is a West End theatre at Piccadilly Circus in the City of Westminster, and is a Grade II* listed building. It has a seating capacity of 588. Building the theatre In 1870, the caterers Spiers and Pond began developmen ...

, London, on 27 October 1915, featuring

Ernest Thesiger Ernest Frederic Graham Thesiger, CBE (15 January 1879 – 14 January 1961) was an English stage and film actor. He is noted for his performance as Doctor Septimus Pretorius in James Whale's film ''Bride of Frankenstein'' (1935). Biography ...

as Bertram Tully. This film version was predated by a 1919 film '' A Little Bit of Fluff'' directed by Kenelm Foss. In that adaptation, Thesiger reprised his role as Tully, as did Alfred Drayton (Dr. Bigland) and Stanley Lathbury (Nixon Trippett). This 1928 film features Syd Chaplin, the half-brother of both Charlie Chaplin and director Wheeler Dryden, as Tully. It was Chaplin's final film.

References

External links

*
Sydchaplin.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Bit Of Fluff, A Films directed by Wheeler Dryden 1928 films British black-and-white films 1928 comedy films Silent British comedy films British silent feature films Films shot at British International Pictures Studios 1920s British films 1920s English-language films English-language comedy films