Summary
In the 1926 comedy All Wet, the perpetually bewildered 'Snub' Pollard portrays a rural simpleton whose father, desperate to civilize him, ships him off to the urban jungle of his aunt’s high-society circle. Pollard, with his signature downward-slanting moustache and nervous energy, is an immediate puncture wound in the balloon of his aunt’s aristocratic pretensions. However, the social friction takes a sharp turn when news arrives that this 'hick' has struck oil. Suddenly, the very socialites who mocked him—including a predatory cousin named Cleopatra—pivot into a mercenary dance of seduction. The film serves as a satirical look at the transactional nature of the Roaring Twenties, using Pollard’s physical vulnerability to highlight the absurdity of the nouveau riche and the vultures who circle them.
Synopsis
"Snub" Pollard plays a hick whose pa packs him off to his aunt's home in the big city. He fits in awkwardly with her hoity society world. News of his oil-well inheritance makes the more mercenary flappers pay attention, notably a vampish cousin (named Cleopatra, no less). It's a funny culture-clash showcase for slight, droopy-moustached comedian Pollard, an Australian vaudevillian who entered movies in 1915 and became a staple in two-reeler vehicles for himself and others (including Harold Lloyd). He remained a familiar face onscreen right up until his death in 1962, making one of his final cameo appearances in the Chubby Checker dance-craze flick TWIST AROUND THE CLOCK. - Dennis Harvey
