Biscot se trompe d'étage (1916) watch online HD

"Biscot se trompe d'étage" is a comedy from director Jacques Feyder and stars the French actor Georges Biscot. I know little about the actor, but apparently he made quite a few films during his career that stretched up until 1944.

The film finds Biscot going to a party and then returning. However, he enjoyed the party too much and cannot remember which apartment is his. And, he goes from room to room causing trouble. And, ironically, when he does find his own room, he thinks he's in the wrong place.

Unfortunately, while this is reasonably well made for 1916, it isn't really that funny. Many times the humor really could have been great but the results were very muted. For example, when he breaks into a room with a couple of newlyweds, it should have been hilarious but wasn't. Not bad but a film mostly for nuts like me who love silents---even the early ones.

Hard slapstick disappeared from the French cinema with the First World War -- perhaps the destruction of the war made the chaos on the movie screen less agreeable to the movie-going public. By the time Jacques Feyder began making movies, he was able to concentrate more on social comedies. In this one, however, he offers us a variation on the Drunk Act, best remembered from Charlie Chaplin's ONE A.M., based upon a skit he performed in Karno's pantomime troupe.

This is apparently an attempt to build up a screen star on the order of Chaplin and Biscot's leisurely trip home and to bed is amusingly done -- particularly when he finds himself in a series of wrong apartments. It's a very pleasant comedy, but it's one that could have been directed by any of several directors.