Summary
In this 1919 silent-era curiosity, Jimmy—portrayed with a kinetic, wide-eyed earnestness by Lewis Sargent—embarks on a quixotic quest to revolutionize the mundane through industrial automation. His magnum opus is a complex, gas-powered contraption designed for the singular purpose of shelling peanuts. However, the machine’s ravenous appetite for fuel creates an atmospheric disturbance of such magnitude that it draws the suspicious gaze of the state. The narrative pivots from a study of amateur engineering to a comedy of errors when revenue officers, fueled by the paranoia of the burgeoning Prohibition era, mistake Jimmy’s mechanical obsession for a clandestine distillery. What follows is a high-stakes misunderstanding where the scent of scorched legumes is conflated with the fumes of illicit spirits, transforming a domestic endeavor into a frantic struggle against the overreach of the law.
Synopsis
Jimmy attempts to perfect an invention for shelling peanuts. He uses so much gas he is accused by revenue officers of having a still.
