''School Days'' (sometimes spelled ''Schooldays'') is a 1920 American silent

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

film, produced by the Vitagraph Company of America.

Plot

Joe is a schoolboy, in school together with a girl (not named in the film) who is in love with him. She passes him a note on a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

stating "I love you Joe" while the grumpy and angry teacher is busy scolding one of the other children. Joe draws a heart on the slate to show his affection for the girl and shows her his drawing. He then later transforms the heart into a

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...

of the teacher, to the amusement of the girl. When the teacher discovers the drawing, Joe gets into trouble and tells him off until another schoolboy, aiming for another boy in the class, hits the teacher with the wet

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

he had used to erase the

blackboard A blackboard (also known as a chalkboard) is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of ...

with. Yet another schoolboy takes the opportunity while the teacher is dazed to dip his chewing gum in ink and fire it towards Joe with a

slingshot A slingshot is a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame, with two natural rubber strips or tubes attached to the upper two ends. The other ends of the strips lead back to a pocket that holds the pro ...

. The gum hits Joe in the face and he chases after the boy, which gets the school's principle involved. More chaos ensues and things are complicated further when four inspectors arrive at the school, and accidentally sit down on sharpened objects (placed on the chairs by a schoolboy but meant for some of the girls). The film then cuts to 10 years later, where the girl has grown up, her father Jed has married the school teacher and Joe and one of the boys from the school are employed on Jed's farm. Both Joe and his former school mate are in love with the girl and flirt with her. However, Jed has promised his girl's hand in marriage to his old friend Zeke's son Harold. Harold shows up at the farm and gets engaged to the girl. Joe interrupts the wedding and runs away with the girl in a car they steal on the farm. The drive away together but have an accident with the car and tumble down a cliff. Joe then wakes up in his classroom, revealing that it was all a dream.

Cast list

Larry Semon Lawrence Semon (February 9, 1889 – October 8, 1928) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter during the silent film era. In his day, Semon was considered a major movie comedian, but he is now remembered mainly for working ...

as Joe * Lucille Carlisle as the girl * Frank Alexander *

Al Thompson Al Thompson (September 21, 1884 – March 1, 1960) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 170 films between 1916 and 1958. Well known in the industry for performing the more difficult stunts, he kept busy as a stunt doubl ...

* Frank Hayes * Pete Gordon *

William Hauber William Hauber (May 20, 1891 – July 17, 1929) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1913 and 1928. He was born in Brownsville, Minnesota, and died in California in a plane crash during aerial scouting for f ...

Reception

The Film Daily ''The Film Daily'' was a daily publication that existed from 1918 to 1970 in the United States. It was the first daily newspaper published solely for the film industry. It covered the latest trade news, film reviews, financial updates, informatio ...

gave it a positive review in May 1920, writing among other things: "What makes this a satisfactory offering of its type is the fact that there are several novel bits and that it has been produced on a lavish scale", but also noting that "Some of the riotous material could be cut to advantage, but, generally, this will hold on its own."

Preservation status

A print of the film exists.

References

External links

* American silent short films American black-and-white films 1920 films 1920 comedy films 1920s English-language films 1920s American films {{1920s-comedy-film-stub