Curiously IMDb seems to have got everything back to front as far as Bud Fisher and Charley Bowers are concerned. So the films of 1925-1926 are all credited to Bowers although he had been sacked long before this for fiddling the books (according to Wikipedia he was sacked twice in 1918 and 1921). On the other hand, with the exception of this film, the early films are all credited to Fisher although only the very first films (1913), distributed by Pathé were made by Fisher. Between 1916 and 1918 they were made by the Barré-Bowers studios by Raoul Barré and Charley Bowers.
Of the earliest films, Huntley Archives have three films on youtube (their Nos. 2839, 6754 and 6882) which they date to the 1910s. In the first case they are certainly wrong (this is an abbreviated version of the 1926 film Where Am I?) and the second looks later too (Last Laugh?) but they may be right in believing that the third is an early Fisher/Pathé films. Difficult to identify because we know so little about them but it could be perhaps be Mutt's Moneymaking Plan of 1913.
Domestic Difficulties survives from 1916 (perhaps still distributed by Pathé) and this film (distributed by Fox) from 1918, and these are the only two that I have been able to find on which Bowers may possibly have worked. Since, however, the Bowers-Barré partnership broke up in this year, it is not even certain that he worked on this film. However some of the more elegant touches (well described by another reviewer) make it seem reasonably likely that this is a Bowers-Barré film.
These early films, both Fisher's own and the Barré/Bowers films, are very simple in style. have domestic themes and tend to make use of speech-bubbles (like Bowers' own propaganda/public service cartoon of 1918, A.W.O.L and like the comic-strips themselves.
The later films have considerably more elaborate fantasy themes with frankly rather idiotic story-lines. They are perhaps more conventionally cinematic but, even when one can find the originals rather than the ghastly colourised remakes from the 1930s and/or 1970s, lack the simple charm of the earlier ones. I find Mutt and Jeff cartoons very unfunny and, in my view, this rather more elegant little film is quite the best of the surviving cartoons.
Of the earliest films, Huntley Archives have three films on youtube (their Nos. 2839, 6754 and 6882) which they date to the 1910s. In the first case they are certainly wrong (this is an abbreviated version of the 1926 film Where Am I?) and the second looks later too (Last Laugh?) but they may be right in believing that the third is an early Fisher/Pathé films. Difficult to identify because we know so little about them but it could be perhaps be Mutt's Moneymaking Plan of 1913.
Domestic Difficulties survives from 1916 (perhaps still distributed by Pathé) and this film (distributed by Fox) from 1918, and these are the only two that I have been able to find on which Bowers may possibly have worked. Since, however, the Bowers-Barré partnership broke up in this year, it is not even certain that he worked on this film. However some of the more elegant touches (well described by another reviewer) make it seem reasonably likely that this is a Bowers-Barré film.
These early films, both Fisher's own and the Barré/Bowers films, are very simple in style. have domestic themes and tend to make use of speech-bubbles (like Bowers' own propaganda/public service cartoon of 1918, A.W.O.L and like the comic-strips themselves.
The later films have considerably more elaborate fantasy themes with frankly rather idiotic story-lines. They are perhaps more conventionally cinematic but, even when one can find the originals rather than the ghastly colourised remakes from the 1930s and/or 1970s, lack the simple charm of the earlier ones. I find Mutt and Jeff cartoons very unfunny and, in my view, this rather more elegant little film is quite the best of the surviving cartoons.