His Nibs

In 1920, comedy pioneer Al Christie shot A Smart Aleck, featuring vaudevillian Chic Sale – which he either didn’t finish or withdrew from circulation after a brief first run (although no premiere date has so far been found). The following year, Gregory La Cava (who till then had focused his creative energies on trailblazing animations) got hold of Christie’s materials and shot new scenes featuring Sale – now in five more parts, honouring what the audience loved best about him: his skill at doing caricatures. 

His Nibs is set in a cinema during the screening of a film called He Fooled ‘Em All; La Cava did everything to do with the cinema, while Christie’s footage comes into play whenever we see something from He Fooled ‘Em All! Read: Sale is making jokes about himself – especially whenever he, in his projectionist guise, has something salty to say about the damn picture he’s showing!