Fares, Please!

In this 1924 silent comedy, Al St. John plays a frantic messenger boy whose life takes a sharp turn when he inherits a streetcar company. The 'empire' he receives is little more than a collection of rusting metal and skeletal tracks, but it represents his only path to upward mobility. However, the local transit monopoly, led by a ruthless and predatory competitor, sees Al's inheritance as a threat to their dominance. What follows is a high-speed, low-budget war of attrition played out on the rails. Al must navigate a landscape of mechanical failures, sabotage, and the constant threat of being run off the road. The film transforms a mundane urban commute into a battlefield of physical ingenuity, where the hero's survival depends entirely on his ability to outmaneuver a villain who has every institutional advantage. It is a story of grit, grease, and the absurdity of early 20th-century urban expansion.