George "Slim" Summerville Movies

Charlie Chaplin's 28th Keystone comedy pits him against Chester Conklin as rival for the attentions of their landlady Gene Marsh and for Chester's girlfriend Cecile Arnold. After the midday meal, each of the rivals tries to chat up the landlady, only to be prevented by the other. They decide to go out together to prevent a fight but split up as Charlie stops in front of a bar while Chester proceeds to a park. Charlie is distracted, however, by a passing beauty who gives him the eye. He follows her a bit but is put off by the lady's large boyfriend. Going on to the park, Charlie has a confrontation with the large boyfriend and observes Chester's meeting with his girlfriend, who is incredibly solicitous. She begs for affection and even gives Chester money, much to Charlie's amazement and envy. Charlie eventually dispatches both boyfriends and follows the girls to a movie theatre where, sitting between them, he charms the pair of beauties, making some rather amusing gestures with his feet. The boyfriends show up and replace the girls in their seats while Charlie dozes. A fight ensues in which Charlie is thrown through the movie screen. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide

Charlie Chaplin's 20th film for Keystone marks a turning point in his career. From this point on, with one exception, he was to write and direct all his future films. In Laughing Gas Chaplin plays a dentist's assistant who is first seen entering the office officiously. The patients are fooled into thinking he is the dentist himself, until he picks up the spittoons and exits to a back room. He confronts a midget-size co-worker there. The Dentist finally arrives and the first patient is admitted. Laughing gas is administered, and the extraction performed, but the dentist is not able to awaken the patient. He sends Chaplin out to the pharmacy for an antidote. Chaplin encounters Mack Swain who is standing in front of the pharmacy, blocking the entrance. Chaplin gains entrance by performing some of his famous hat tricks, which non plus Swain. Exiting the pharmacy Chaplin gets into a fight with Swain which evolves into brick throwing, during which Swain and an innocent bystander, Slim Summerville, are both hit in the face, turning them both into dental patients. On his way back to the office, Chaplin encounters and flirts with the dentist's wife and accidentally tears off her skirt. When Chaplin arrives with the medicine, the patient has left, and the dentist has been called away to attend his distraught wife. Chaplin admits a beautiful female patient who he pretends to examine but with whom he flirts by grasping her nose with a pair of pliers and kissing her, to her apparent amusement. Summerville and Swain then arrive at the office and Swain catches sight of Chaplin in the back room. The dentist and his wife arrive and a melee ensues in which everyone is literally kicked out onto the pavement, except Chaplin and the wife who collapse in the waiting room. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide

Charlie Chaplin's 29th comedy for Keystone was one of his most popular, grossing $130,000 in its initial year of release. It was shot before, but released after Those Love Pangs, and was originally conceived as an early sequence of the latter, showing Charlie and Chester Conklin at work in a combination cafe/bakery. The sequence was so good Mack Sennett suggested that Chaplin expand it. Waiter Charlie has his mind on a waitress as he clears one patron's plate onto the food of another. He mans the bakery counter and is taken with a female customer, especially her hip movements which he imitates. He gets into fights with fellow-waiter Chester and disrupts work in the bakery below. The bakers strike for higher wages and Charlie and Chester are impressed into service as bakers at which both are inept. The striking bakers plot revenge as one of them buys a loaf of bread and inserts a stick of dynamite into it. They send a little girl to return it as undercooked, and the owner's wife brings it downstairs to have it baked further. She observes Charlie's method of bagel making - whipping a roll of dough around his wrist forming a ring and rolling it off over his hand. Meanwhile the owner (Fritz Schade) has been noticing that the waitresses have dough on their derrieres, indicating they've been socializing with Charlie in the bakery. When his wife returns from downstairs, the owner likewise sees dough on her behind, put there by Charlie, and he flies into a rage. He goes down to the bakery and berates Charlie, slaps him around and chases him upstairs to the restaurant and down again. In self defense Charlie flings dough and flour bags at Fritz and Chester. Just then the oven explodes, covering Chester and Fritz with debris and burying Charlie under a huge lump of dough from which he emerges, eyes first, as the film ends. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide

Released June 24, 1917, A Dog Catcher's Love was one of the last of the Mack Sennett comedies to be released under the Keystone brand; within four months, the producer would dissolve Keystone and reorganize under the imprimatur of Mack Sennett Productions. The dog catcher of the title is arrow-narrow Slim Summerville, and his "love" is pert Peggy Pearce. Alas, Summerville's rival is handsome bow-wow fancier Glen Cavender, whose luck with women borders on the fantastic. But when Peggy is kidnapped by foreign spies, it is Summerville and his faithful hound Teddy (a top Keystone star in his own right) who gallop to the rescue. A genuine battleship and submarine are brought into play during the film's slapstick-orgy finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Denver Dude is Rodeo Randall, played by the eternally likeable Hoot Gibson. At first just another cowpoke, Rodeo begins dressing up and taking baths for the sake of pretty Patricia Lamar (Blanche Mehaffey). But when danger threatens, our hero reverts to buckskin and a ten-gallon hat, which of course was all that Gibson's fans could ask for. Glenn Tryon, soon to become a popular leading man in his own right, scores a comic bull's eye as Rodeo's foppish rival for Patricia's affections. Others in the cast include Slim Summerville as a perennially drunken ranch hand, and slimy Bob McKim as the all-purpose villain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arriving in the small town of Toptown to participate in the local rodeo, Buck Sims (Hoot Gibson) meets lovely Pony Blenning (Ethlyne Clair), who, with her crippled father (Charles Sellon), operates a merry-go-round. Pony's regular suitor, town bully Pinto Pete (William Dunn), attempts to warn off the newcomer, but is beaten in the ensuing fight. Pony's father is suddenly found shot and Buck is arrested. The Blennings, however, refuse to prosecute and Buck is free to win the Big Race, beating Pete once again. Pete then kidnaps Pony with Buck in hot pursuit. The final battle takes place in a canoe, where Buck finally manages to rescue Pony. Universal's highest paid Western star and a special favorite of studio owner Carl Laemmle, Hoot Gibson was at the top of his game in 1927. Directed by action expert B. Reeves Eason, Painted Ponies benefitted from the typical Gibson mix of rustic humor and hard riding. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Though Will Rogers was still packing 'em in on Broadway, he was considered a Hollywood has-been when he starred in the independently produced A Texas Steer. Rogers also wrote the screenplay of this "topical comedy," in which he plays Texas rancher Maverick Brander, who is maneuvered into politics by his status-seeking wife Ma (Louise Fazenda). Unfortunately, Maverick finds himself at the mercy of a trio of corrupt political hacks who want our hero to use his influence to push through a piece of questionable legislation. The opponents of the bill contrive to abduct Maverick, but he escapes in time to strike a blow for honesty in Washington. The level of humor in the film can be gauged by such character names as "Bossy Brander," "Dixie Style" and "Fairleigh Bright." A Texas Steer had its moments, but Will Rogers would have to wait until talkies arrived to fully blossom as a film star. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nearing the end of his lucrative contract with Universal, comedic cowboy Hoot Gibson starred as what he had been in real life: a champion bronc buster. Hired to break some horses, The Hooter is soon falsely accused of stealing money from his employer (Charles K. French) but his quick wits, superior riding skills and a great deal of luck rescue him from a rather sticky situation. As usual, Gibson was aided by a superior cast, which this time included future WAMPAS Baby Ethlyne Clair, rustic comic Slim Summerville (who also contributed the story) and, as the villain, veteran leading man Alan Forrest. A seemingly run-of-the-mill Gibson Western, Riding For Fame did have a somewhat troubled pre-production where Arthur Statter's original story was all but scrapped in favor of a new one written by director B. Reeves Eason and Summerville. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

One of Hoot Gibson's final silent westerns (and a sequel to the popular Chip of the Flying U (1926)), King of the Rodeo presented the canny star as a rodeo champion from Montana getting himself ready for the big Chicago meet. There are, of course, a couple of bad guys to be dealt with along the way (including Monte Montague, here playing a character aptly named Weasel) and at one point, Gibson chases one of them through the traffic-jammed streets of Chicago. With the hayseed Slim Summerville and veteran slapstick comic Harry Todd to take care of the laughs and character actress Bodil Rosing as Gibson's devoted ma, wringing out a tear or two, a good time was had by all. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a producer reopens a theater where five years before, a lead actor was killed on stage during a performance. The murder remained unsolved. To solve the mystery, the producer stages the same play with the same cast. As the play is performed, the same series of events occurs and the lead actor vanishes. It is eventually discovered that a masked stage manager is behind the it all. He has set up the whole thing to force stockholders to withdraw from the production. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Rex Lease, Tiffany Studios' all-purpose leading man, heads the cast of Troopers Three. Eddie Haskins (Lease) and his buddies Bugs (Roscoe Karns) and Sunny (Slim Summerville) are washed-up vaudevillians who decide to join the Cavalry, if only for three square meals a day. Once they've filled their bellies, they attempt to bid farewell to the Army, only to learn that they've signed up for a three-year hitch -- and this contract is non-negotiable. For the rest of the film, Eddie romances Dorothy (Dorothy Gulliver), the daughter of his bombastic sergeant, while his pals get mixed up in the usual slapstick situations. Our hero finally proves he is a hero through his courageous behavior during a devastating fire. Troopers Three is distinguished by Rex Lease's expert horsemanship, which would serve him well when he briefly became a cowboy star in the mid-1930s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Journeyman director Richard Thorpe (who later helmed Elvis Presley features) directed this bizarre early talkie western which incorporated comedy musical numbers (vampish Nita Martan sings Crying Blues and A Man Like That) into a standard western plot dealing with rustlers and revenge. Joining up with a travelling medicine show, Westerner Clay Conning (Kenneth Harlan) tries to help his fellow troupers protect themselves against the villains. He also champions the cause of heroine Mary (Dorothy Gulliver), who is likewise being victimized by the baddies. Thrown into jail on a trumped-up charge, Conning escapes to see that justice is done. Screenwriters Bennett Cohen and James Aubrey threw in a stranded theatrical troupe to provide the vaudeville routines. Leading man Kenneth Harlan was the husband of actress Marie Prevost. Harlan's days as a star were numbered, but he continued in character roles for another decade and a half. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This third film version of Rex Beach's rugged Yukon novel The Spoilers was also the first talkie adaptation. This time, Gary Cooper and William "Stage" Boyd are cast as gold prospector Glennister and crooked Alaska politician McNamara. In partnership with Dextry (James Kirkwood), Glennister is the proud owner of the Midas gold mine, but McNamara and the corrupt Judge Stillman (Lloyd Ingraham) conspire to gain control of the mine, using legal but highly unethical maneuvers. Preparing to shoot each other full of holes, Glennister and McNamara are temporarily dissuaded by Glenister's sweetheart Helen (Kay Johnson), who suggests that the courts handle the dispute. But saloon owner Cherry Malotte (Betty Compson), jealous of Helen, lies to Glennister, telling him that Helen and McNamara are conspiring to cheat him again. Matters come to a head when Glennister and McNamara settle their differences with a spectacular fistfight. During filming of The Spoilers, the stars of the 1914 version William Farnum and Tom Santschi showed up frequently on the set, ostensibly to serve as "technical advisers" for the climactic set-to (one suspects that their advice was merely for the benefit of the Paramount publicity department). The Rex Beach story would be filmed again in 1942 with John Wayne and Randolph Scott, and yet again in 1955 with Jeff Chandler and Rory Calhoun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide