Summary
In a darkly comedic twist on entrepreneurial desperation, Dr. Cutup, a physician whose financial ledger is as anemic as his devotion to his practice, finds his true calling not in medicine, but in the thrilling pursuit of sport. His bank account, however, cannot sustain his fervent dedication to the diamond, especially when the formidable Female Giants take the field, drawing his attention irrevocably from his struggling clinic. With a wife and infant in dire need of sustenance, Cutup concocts a scheme of audacious, if morally dubious, brilliance. He enlists the unassuming Mrs. Joe Martin, ingeniously disguised as an office boy, to orchestrate a peculiar form of street marketing: procure a dozen bananas, consume their sweet flesh, and then strategically scatter their treacherous peels directly before his very own establishment. The resulting cascade of pedestrian pratfalls and subsequent injuries generates a veritable gold rush of new patients, transforming his once-barren waiting room into a bustling hub of broken bones and twisted ankles. Flush with the success of his ingenious, if unethical, enterprise, Cutup prepares for an evening of well-deserved revelry, only to become the ultimate, poetic victim of his own meticulously laid, slippery trap.
Dr. Cutup paid so much attention to sport that his bank-roll was getting low and he was forced to devise an unusual means for getting business. Baseball was his great diversion and when the Female Giants hove into sight he deserted business for the ball grounds. But his wife and baby needed money so he hired Mrs. Joe Martin to carry out his pet scheme of filling the office with business. He made Mrs. Joe Martin dress up as office boy and sent her out for a dozen bananas. "Eat them and shatter the peels right in front of my door". The scheme was successful beyond even his expectations and the accidents which happened on banana paved side-walk brought a golden trickle into his till. Highly satisfied with the business Dr. Cutup put on his hat and decided to go out for an evening's entertainment, when kerflop. he went broke on his own business scheme.
Review Excerpt
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The Art of the Absurd: A Deep Dive into 'A Jungle Gentleman'
The early days of cinema, often dismissed by casual viewers as mere flickering curiosities, were in fact a fertile ground for narrative experimentation and the forging of comedic archetypes that continue to resonate today. Among these forgotten gems, Fred Hibbard’s 1919 silent short, A Jungle Gentleman, stands as a testament to the era’s ingenious capacity for slapstick, satire, and a particularly biting brand of ironic humor...."
