A Waggin' Tale

In the dimly lit tableau of early twentieth‑century cinema, "A Waggin' Tale" unfurls as a bittersweet comedy of displacement. Mr. Newlywed, a once‑spry gentleman whose very name teeters on the edge of satire, finds his destiny rerouted by the capricious affection his future spouse harbors for a stout bulldog. The bride’s devotion to the canine, a creature of stubborn grace, compels her to relocate the couple to a nondescript backwater, a locale that functions less as a setting than as a character of indifferent geography. Within this marginal terrain, Mr. Newlywed confronts the erosion of his social standing, the absurdity of his new surroundings, and the relentless presence of the bulldog, whose snorts and waddles become a metronome for the protagonist’s existential drift. The film, scripted by Monte Brice, leverages the silent medium’s visual wit, allowing May Wallace’s expressive eyes and Carter DeHaven’s physical comedy to articulate the unspoken tension between human aspiration and animal devotion. Charles Force’s supporting turns, alongside Flora Parker DeHaven’s nuanced interjections, punctuate the narrative, rendering the seemingly trivial relocation a study in the politics of love, status, and the absurdity of societal expectations.