Series: Snub Pollard Director: Charles Parrott Producer: Hal Roach Titles: H.M. Walker Photography: Editor: Stars: Snub Pollard, Marie Mosquini, Noah Young Company: Pathé Exchange Released: 05 February 1922 Length: 1 reel Production No.: H-91 Filming dates: September 26 - October 3, 1921 Rating: 5/10

Blow 'Em Up

Six false-bearded men are in a basement building bombs when their leader (Noah Young) comes down and orders the men to leave to do their work. Enter Snub Pollard, riding down the street on his bicycle before ditching it to get into a taxi - and out the other side. He encounters a boy holding what appears to be a ball. The boy gives the ball to Snub, but when he kicks it, it explodes. Snub and his girlfriend (Marie Mosquini) get into a taxi where a motorist along side them hands Snub a bomb. They get out of the taxi and are met by another man brandishing a bomb. Snub and Marie run (in slow motion) to escape from him but the man manages to hand the bomb to Snub, who quickly hides it inside a box. Snub discards his cigarette and it lands on some balloons which explode. Snub continues to run and bumps into Noah Young. There is a clever, but obvious gag where an open cart reveals the words "T.N.T." which Snub uses to keep Noah at bay but when he slams the open door shut it reveals the name "T.N.Thompson". After trying to hide from Noah inside a half-built shack, Snub has to continue to avoid further catastrophe and finally manages to escape before stopping at a street corner where he finds an elderly woman struggling with a large sack. He takes it from her and soon finds it contains.... yes you guessed it.... another bloody bomb. Snub takes the bomb out of the sack and throws it up into the air before running away. A few seconds later a small aircraft falls from the sky with the pilot scratching his head and wondering what just happened? That's where my footage ends.

Favourite bit A clever gag where Snub jumps onto the back of a truck and instructs the driver to get going. When the truck drives forward we see that Snub has actually missed the truck completely and has sat down on a plank of wood. Clever. I had to watch that twice to fully appreciate how good that was.

Trivia • Copyrighted January 26, 1922. • 3 minutes 53 seconds of the film is featured in the Robert Youngson compilation "Days Of Thrills And Laughter". A fragmented print which utilizes this footage as well as a bit more, minus intertitle cards running 4 minutes 49 seconds was made available to me for review on this site. My opinion • Having only viewed half of the film, it looks fast paced, muddled and rather basic, though a couple of decent gags are offered.

	Snub Pollard Snub
	Marie Mosquini The girl
	Noah Young Bomber
	Jack O'Brien Policeman/Man with balloons
	Jackie Morgan Child

UNIDENTIFIED CAST

STILLS (click any image to enlarge)

SHOT ON LOCATION (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: Dave Glass (footage) Jim Jarvis (identification of Jackie Morgan) Jesse Brisson (identification of Jack O'Brien) This page was last updated on: 19 November 2020