There It Is (1928)
A Scotland Yard detective and his tiny stop-motion assistant, a bug named MacGregor who lives in a matchbox, investigate a string of bizarre New York City phenomena, including chickens hatching full grown, furniture floating through rooms, and a pair of pants dancing on its own.
There It Is is a prime showcase for Charley Bowers’s singular blend of slapstick and stop-motion animation, a hybrid style that went largely unheralded in its own time but has since won him recognition as one of silent comedy’s great visual surrealists. It was added to the National Film Registry in 2004.
Background
There It Is is a 1928 silent comedy directed by Harold L. Muller and starring Charles ‘Charley’ Bowers, who also worked on its stop-motion animation. The film is a showcase for Bowers’s blend of slapstick and stop-motion effects, a hybrid style that went largely unrecognized in its own time. The story follows a Scotland Yard detective and his tiny stop-motion assistant, a bug named MacGregor who lives in a matchbox, as they investigate strange events in New York. The film was added to the National Film Registry in 2004, and it runs about nineteen minutes. Its cast includes Kathryn McGuire and Melbourne MacDowell.
What to watch for
Look for the stop-motion sequences, in which objects behave impossibly: chickens hatch full grown, furniture floats through rooms, and a pair of trousers dances on its own. The gags are built on the contrast between live-action settings and animated objects, and each new phenomenon is introduced with the same deadpan seriousness. MacGregor, the bug in the matchbox, gives the film its most distinctive character, and the detective’s reactions keep the investigation moving. The film’s short running time suits a silent comedy built on a sequence of visual surprises. Its surreal gags, staged in a live-action frame, anticipate later experiments in animated comedy.
