Summary
A genteel boardinghouse, wallpapered with the ghosts of unpaid rent, quivers beneath the anarchic footfalls of two human hurricanes: Snub Pollard, a scarecrow in moth-eaten tweed whose pockets are black holes devouring coins, and Eddie Boland, a rubber-limbed raconteur whose promises evaporate faster than gin on a radiator. Their landlady, played by Marie Mosquini with the regal fatigue of a deposed duchess, clutches her ledger like a hymnal while every tick of the hallway clock knocks another nickel off the ledger. Ernest Morrison’s bellboy—eyes wide as trolley windows—witnesses escalating skirmishes: exploding soufflés, wallpaper that peels into paper airplanes delivering IOUs, a staircase converted into a slide that deposits evicted furniture into the street. The film’s three reels spiral into a Rube-Goldberg auction where the house itself is the final wager; when the gavel falls, the victors discover the deed has been replaced by a playing card—the two of spades—inked with the legend ‘HOUSE ALWAYS WINS.’ The landlady’s triumphant smirk, half-melted candle of endurance and cunning, lingers as the frame irises out on Snub and Eddie carrying their suitcases into the horizon, still arguing over who owes the cab fare.
Synopsis
The tribulations of a landlady who has the misfortune of having Snub and Eddie as her non-paying boarders.
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