Summary
In the dusty, sepia-toned landscape of 1919, Tootsies and Tamales unfolds as a feverish burlesque of courtship and domestic captivity. The narrative engine is ignited by a villainous suitor whose romantic overtures toward the heroine are met with visceral disdain, yet his persistence is backed by a sinister cadre of confederates. This antagonist, a figure of grotesque authority, orchestrates the abduction of the girl’s father, subjecting him to a state of gagged paralysis intended to coerce a paternal blessing through sheer attrition. The arrival of the hero—a figure of nonchalant defiance—disrupts this claustrophobic power dynamic. In a sequence of surrealist slapstick, the hero survives a forced libation by weaponizing his own physiology, spitting literal explosives in a bluff of kinetic absurdity. The film briefly pivots into the bizarre with an animal-assisted armistice involving a bear, a moment of temporary détente that collapses under the weight of the hero's inadvertent interference with the villain’s academic pursuits. The climax converges upon a 'bull-fight' holiday, where the hero’s unexpected prowess in the arena triggers a lethal retaliation from the villain: a countdown to a shack-bound explosion. The resolution is a frantic race against time, culminating in a maritime escape that leaves the antagonist trapped within the very architecture of his own destruction, signaling a violent end to his machinations as the cottage erupts in a symphonic burst of celluloid fire.
Synopsis
Introduced in a very novel way, we find the villain wooing the heroine, much against her own and father's will. Trapped and captured by the villain and his confederates, the father is bound and gagged until such time as he give in to the villain's demands. The hero arrives, ignores the villain and becomes a target for his anger. Being forced to drink with the villain, the hero does so, and surprises the villain by spitting explosives. His bluff does not hold good for long, and again the villain and he are at war, Finally, with the aid of a bear, they sign an armistice, and the villain goes to his work of studying figures. Hero unintentionally interferes with this, and the armistice is all off. Finally on the "bull-fight " holiday, a temporary truce is reached, and everything goes well, with the hero and the girl, until the hero is called upon to kill the bull, which he does, to the surprise of the villain, who gives orders that the bomb should be set right way to kill the father. The hero and heroine after a thrilling fight with the villain and his confederates, rush to the father's rescue, The three escape from the shack and take refuge on the hero's sea-craft - while the villains, rushing the shack, arrive inside in time to be blown to pieces with it.
Review Excerpt
"
The year 1919 was a crucible for the language of cinema, a period where the syntax of visual storytelling was being forged in the heat of independent production houses. Tootsies and Tamales, a frantic short featuring the burgeoning talents of Richard Smith and the legendary Oliver Hardy, stands as a testament to the era's unbridled creativity and its penchant for blending high-stakes melodrama with the visceral impact of physical comedy.
The Architecture of the Villainous Heavy
In the early ..."
