Summary
In 'The Tattle Tail,' a spirited brown hound named Brownie emerges as an unlikely hero in a Prohibition-era romp, his nose tuned not to flowers but to illicit contraband. This 1920s silent film, directed with whimsical precision, transforms a liquor-dispensing piano on a wagon into a central character, its keys clanging under the weight of moral defiance. Brownie, a canine gumshoe, navigates a labyrinth of deception, his tail serving as both a conduit for evidence and a symbol of tenacity. When the bootleggers, a motley crew of adult accomplices and a precocious boy, attempt to drown their misdeeds in a lake, Brownie's aquatic resilience turns his tail into a floating ledger of justice. The film’s ingenuity lies in its alchemy of slapstick and social critique, where the piano’s mechanical melody mirrors the mechanical morality of a society teetering on the edge of reform.
Synopsis
Brownie plays the part of a literal rum-hound, and assisted by a remarkably small boy and several adults, depicts the sleuthing, pursuit and capture of a band of bootleggers who dispense their wares through the medium of a piano hitched on a wagon, which emits liquid notes when given keys are struck. Brownie "soaks up the evidence" by rolling in it, but is captured by the bootleggers and thrown into a lake. He manages to keep his tail above water, and the liquor still upon it is drained off and used as evidence.
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