Algie, the Miner (1912)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

"Algie, the Miner" is an American 10-minute short from 1912, so this one already made it past the 100-year-mark and as such it is of course a black-and-white silent film. Even if you are probably not too familiar with the names of director Edward Warren and his cast here, then let me assure you that this is because the time passed ant not because of lack of activity as there are many people who are part of this film that had really prolific careers in the first half the 20th century. But despite this experience, this was not a good watch here. Making a film that successfully combines the genres comedy and western (and romance) is already pretty difficult by definition and back then the means certainly weren't there yet. The lack of a sufficient amount of intertitles is another big problem as I found it fairly difficult to understand what was going on. The lead actor here (Billie Quirk) had a bit of a Buster Keaton thing going for him I guess. All in all, not a disastrous watch, but still on a level where I would only recommend it to the very biggest silent fans. And even those won't be missing too much if they decide to skip this one here. I give it a thumbs-down.

Algie, the Miner (1912) ** (out of 4) This comedy short was shown on TCM a several weeks back to highlight gay folks in early Hollywood. The title character in this short (and various other films shown) isn't out and out gay but is shown (in the writer's words) as a "sissy". Algie wants to marry a woman but her father says no because the young man is too much of a sissy but the father tells Algie that he can marry the daughter if he turns himself into a man within one year. The writer of the book and the one who introduced the film makes a lot of examples of why this character is gay but the film itself really isn't anything special as there are no laughs anywhere to be had.

This is, like most films of the day, a very short movie. At only ten minutes, it tells the tale of a very wimpy and rather effeminate man's change to manhood. Billy Quirk wants to marry a girl--and considering how he dresses and acts, it's actually a little surprising he wants her. But before he is allowed to marry the girl, he is told to go out and prove his manhood, so he becomes, of all things, a cowboy. Well, despite the impossibility of this task, he quickly proves himself and when he an his new-found friend arrive back home, the family is actually scared of the super-virile Billy, since he's now a tough hombre.This is an odd film because it really looks as if the producers are trying to say that Billy is gay (based on the way he dresses and because he kisses the first cowboy he meets) but the plot involves him wanting to marry a real live girl! An odd but very watchable film that's good for a few laughs. Some of the other reviews scored the film lower, but for 1912, this was a very good film--as I have seen several hundred very early films and this is better than most.

DEFINITE SPOILERS!!!! Algie (a VERY effeminate man) must prove his manhood to marry the daughter of a rich man. To prove this he goes out west and (after kissing two men on the cheek) is "taught" by Big Jim on how to be a man. This leads to utterly predictable "comedy". It seems hopeless but then Algie proves himself by saving Jim from being robbed and he goes home to marry his girlfriend.The story is silly, the comedy painful and the acting is WAY over the top even for a silent movie. But, in terms of gay characters, this is important. It's one of the first representations of a gay character on screen and (even though it's negative) it is historically important. Also Algie DOES prove himself to be a man at the end. The extremely effeminate mannerisms that Algie shows may offend some gay viewers, but it really shouldn't. It's just a sign of its time.