- The gases left in the wake of a comet that passed by earth have the effect of making everyone on the planet lazy and lethargic, and actually stops time.
- Fuller Speed flirts with the law when he tries to make eyes at a fair damsel nearby, but she was one of the chaste variety and straightway called over a bluecoat to rout the fresh young man. Fuller didn't even look when he made his getaway and happened to stroll into a lecture hall where Professor Peedeeque, aided by his pretty daughter, Claire, was giving a lecture on "Speed-Speed." The Professor told his listeners that the world was speeding itself to death and unless it stopped shortly there would be no world in 1926. Fuller is more interested in Claire than he is in the lecture, so sticks it out. Hess E. Tate, Claire's sweetheart, anxiously awaits her coming at the Professor's home. While the young folks make merry the Professor takes his telescope and scans the sky. Suddenly he darts back in amazement. High up in the blue sky is a strange comet. The Professor takes a withered parchment from the safe and anxiously reads it. He finds that Hoe Kem, an ancient astronomer, in the year 916 had discovered a comet, which he claimed would return at the end of every thousand-year period. The gases emanating from the comet "slowed up" the world to the extent that every moving body barely crept along. The maid's call for dinner interrupts the Professor's discourse. After the meal the young folks go for a stroll into the garden, and the Professor to his "oxygen studio" to watch the moving comet. The comet moves towards the earth, but the young folks bask in the moonlight. Suddenly, however, they are taken with a strange feeling and cannot understand what is coming over them. The Professor in his studio watches the dial and realizes that the comet is emanating its gases. He remembers the young folks and hurries them into the studio. Here they revive and watch through the portholes the people of the earth being changed into slow mechanical beings. As they watch they rejoice in being safe from the effects of the comet but their safety is not long-lived. The depressing air creeps into the studio and the Professor rushes to his dial to find the trouble. He returns and informs the young folks that the machines contain only enough oxygen for three and that one of them must go. Fuller and Hess look at each other and realize that one of them must go into the world of "slow-dom." Lots are drawn and the tension increases. Fuller draws the long straw and is forced to accept the inevitable. He is launched into the air through one of the portholes in the studio. Claire watches with tear-dimmed eyes. Fuller "floats" to his feet and after many slow and sad wavings of the "au revoir" type slowly moves into the sphere of the "gas" laden world, while those in the oxygen studio, immune from the action of Hoe Kem's comet, sadly watch him drift into oblivion.—Moving Picture World synopsis
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Top Gap
By what name was The Comet's Come-Back (1916) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer