Foxtrot Finesse is one of my favorite early silent comedies. It starred the real life husband and wife team of Sydney and Lucille Drew. Lucille was an aunt by marriage to John, Lionel and Ethel Barrymore and a sister-in-law to character actor Harry Davenport. She was half her husband’s age when they married. He was born during the civil war and she in 1890. They wrote and starred in many comedy shorts until Sydney’s death in 1919. Lucille quit acting after her husband passed away and died after a long illness in 1925 at the tender age of 35. Together they offered audiences of the day a more sophisticated alternative to the Mack Sennett type of slapstick comedy that ruled the box office of the early silent era.
Ferdie and Eva Crosby are a nice middle-class couple. They live with Eva’s stern mother. Eva has a problem. She’s got foxtrotitis. She can’t stop dancing to the latest fad. She makes up her face foxtrotting and comes to the table likewise. When his mother-in-law goes to visit another of her children Ferdie pretends to be sad but inside is rejoicing. That night he goes to a foxtrot party with his wife after her friend calls up to tell her that they are trying out some new kicks. Ferdie is so tired of dancing he pretends to sprain his ankle. Once Eva discovers the ruse she threatens to write to her mother to return at once. Ferdie jumps quickly to his feet and begins to dance. The End.
The comedy here is of the more subtle variety than you normally get in silent comedy shorts. It is essentially a drawing room comedy, relying on situations and facial expressions more than pratfalls and chases. Lucille Drew steals the movie with her exuberant dancing and general high spirits. The fad of foxtrotting may have long since come and gone but the gentle humor in this movie is timeless.
