Summary
In a delightful spiral of escalating domestic chaos and professional desperation, Mr. Popp, a man promised a raise but facing bleak business prospects, devises a scheme to deliberately undermine his firm by adopting lax work habits. His meticulously planned sabotage, however, is hilariously derailed when a morning stroll reveals his dining room strewn with baby clothes. Misinterpreting his wife's Red Cross charity work as a sign of impending fatherhood, Popp’s initial despair transforms into a bewildered joy. The comedic crescendo truly begins when a maid’s cryptic call lures him home to a 'surprise' – a baby happily ensconced in a carriage. His proud, albeit premature, announcement to his office colleagues quickly shatters as he discovers the infant is, in fact, not his own. Plunged into a frantic state of panic, Popp and his wife embark on an absurd quest to procure a temporary baby before his colleagues arrive. Their solution? Abducting a child from a nearby carriage. The ensuing charade culminates in an uproarious scene where the 'proud' father attempts to convince his skeptical colleagues of the baby's resemblance to its 'mother,' only for the child to be identified, to Popp's utter mortification, as of Japanese descent. The comedic pandemonium reaches its peak with the rightful parent's dramatic reclamation of their child, forcing Popp into an even more audacious, yet ultimately successful, gambit: adopting an entire orphan asylum to secure his much-coveted raise. It's a testament to the lengths one man will go to for professional advancement, all wrapped in a wonderfully farcical package.
Synopsis
Mr. Popp was promised a raise. But the prospects were bad, so he decided to bust up the business by coming down late and going home early. At eleven Mr. Popp strolled into the dining-room to find the table littered with baby clothes. This was a great shock to him, for he didn't know - that his wife was making dresses for the Red Cross dollies, so he departed for the office with the happy thought that he was about to become a father. Soon he received a phone call from the maid, asking him to come home, that there was a surprise awaiting him. Mr. Popp came home to find the baby sitting up in the carriage, smiling happily. He phoned the office and asked the boys to come over to see the baby. Then, to his dismay, he learns that it is not his baby. Here was a perplexing situation for poor Popp. After sister and her baby had gone, Popp and Mrs. Popp rushed out to find a baby for the time being. Seeing a baby carriage near they wheeled it into their home, just as the boys arrived. "Doesn't the baby resemble its mother?" queried the apparently happy father: but the bunch couldn't see it, for, on close inspection, the baby was found to be a Jap. Suddenly the sky broke, and the owner of the child rushed in and claimed its own. But Popp would get his raise, so he adopted a whole orphan asylum and succeeded.
Review Excerpt
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Who's to Blame?: A Hilarious Dive into Silent Era Shenanigans
Step back in time, dear reader, to an era where the silver screen hummed with the kinetic energy of physical comedy and the expressive power of the human face. The year is 1918, a tumultuous period in global history, yet within the flickering confines of the cinema, audiences found solace and uproarious laughter. It is in this context that we encounter Who's to Blame?, a delightful silent comedy that, despite its age, still ..."
