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Directed by William A. Seiter
If the triumvirate of silent comedy kings is Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd, surely Reginald Denny ranks high among the second echelon of that era's laugh-getters. Denny's forte was light comedy, his pictures precursors of the screwball comedies of the '30s that generally fell into one of two camps: the domestic comedy and the marital mix-up romp that came to be known as the sex farce. Early titles for this production (The Lightning Lover and The Emergency Husband) indicate clearly under which category The Fast Worker belongs. Although only mildly risque, it may have been deemed too salacious by the censors, requiring a last-minute title change (The Emergency Husband is its given title in the cutting continuity, which would have been made only when the film was ready for release), and the line of dialogue "I just heard Roxbury say he wasn't the father of their child" having the last seven words removed to make it less objectionable.
The cutting continuity proved invaluable for the restoration, which combined the best sections of two prints, an incomplete nitrate copy of the foreign version and a more complete 16mm print of the domestic version. But bits and pieces still were missing, requiring a few titles to be recreated and explanatory titles made to bridge sections that remain lost. (And since that altered title noted above was an obvious insert, set in a different typeface from the rest of the intertitles, it has been replaced with the one from the continuity.)
Sadly, the Denny persona of the silents didn't long survive the coming of sound, and the actor was relegated quickly to B-picture leads and character parts. But a dozen or so of his effervescent comedies remain in existence, many of them yet to be preserved by the Archive. When finally made available, they will provide today's audiences a better opportunity to appreciate this much-heralded yet little-known comic of the silent screen.
–Jere Guldin
Universal Pictures Producer: Carl Laemmle Scenarists: Beatrice Van, Raymond L. Schrock Based on the novel "Husbands of Edith" by George Barr McCutcheon Cinematographer: Ben Reynolds Editor: John Rawlins Cast: Reginald Denny, Laura La Plante, Ethel Grey Terry, Muriel Frances Dana
35mm, silent, 70 min.
Preserved in cooperation with the Nederlands Filmmuseum, from 16mm and 35mm nitrate domestic and foreign version print elements. Laboratory services by Cinetech, The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, Title House Digital, YCM Laboratories. Special thanks to: American Film Institute, Susan Dalton. Mark-Paul Meyer, The Museum of Modern Art Department of Film, David W Packard, Universal Studios.
