The Iron Mule

1925
5.8| 0h13m| NR| en
Details

A train known as the Iron Mule is loaded with passengers, and starts off on its trip. Along the way, the train faces numerous obstacles and delays. The engineer is prepared for most of them, but the real challenges come when the train is ambushed by Indians.

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Reel Comedies Inc.

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Reviews

KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?
Micransix Crappy film
Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
kindlydr ALTERNATE TITLES: The Iron Mule, Fatty's Iron Mule. Of the film's pun loaded captions, the title card reads, "The Twenty Cent Limited". The first "joke" card on screen says, "The Iron Mule has made the trip twice before – once on time, and once on the track." Last card of the film reads, "To less romantic hearts, The Iron Mule seemed a soulless monster but these brave people found her tender." Versions available for internet viewing vary in length from 10 to 19 minutes. Low mentality sounds (voices, music) are added in some versions, together with burlesque comic drum punctuations for most of the pratfalls. An excellent quality Blue Ray edition of "Our Hospitality" with "The Iron Mule" as an extra is available. One film version (which edits out the introductory footage, leaving out the boarding station name - a real hoot) starts with Keaton's replica of Stephenson's Rocket being loaded, conductor punching a ticket, then falling off the last car when the train jerks forward on starting. With no limit to the pratfalls, the trip starts from a sparsely settled rural area. Approaching a tunnel, the engineer pulls off the smoke pipe, and runs up the hill with it, as the smoke pipe slot feature of the tunnel from "Our Hospitality" (train and tunnel on loan) has been (badly) hidden with fake-looking grass. The engineer's daring do (his hair color changes from blond to dark, sort of like Keaton's) is notable as he dashes downhill with the heavy smoke pipe, and manages miraculously to hop back aboard and put the pipe back on. This film's water challenge is next.The passengers and crew cleverly manage to float the entire train - - smoke and steam billowing off the engine, and it heads downriver. The clever train moves powerfully across the river, rowed solely by the engineer, steered back onto the tracks again by the conductor at the back end. At her first stop returning to dry land, a major to-do causes plenty of hub-bub and consternation. A new passenger tied his horse onto the last car, and the horse balks. Celebrity note: "Buster and Natalie" (Keaton and Talmadge) seem to still be sitting in that car, too. Lots of new pratfalls, following which the train "escapes" from the distracted passengers and crew. A Mack Sennettesque chase sequence follows, loaded with pratfalls and more homages to "Our Hospitality". A band of troublesome native-Americans build a barricade on the track ahead. The train colliding with it is yet another opportunity for – what else – pratfalls. The climactic battle between Indians and train people is a boundless feast of terrific slapstick and some great sight gags. The scalping scene is right out of Mel Brooks. Ends with a truly unexpected – and unlikely – patriotic tableau. Summary: Mack Sennett meets the team of Arbuckle and Keaton.
DKosty123 Al St John is the Engineer of the 20 Cent Special otherwise known as the Iron Mule. The film is a comic trip across the country from here to there. The town names mean little. It is the train & engineer that are the real center of the film.There is one clever sequence where the train goes into a tunnel but first the engineer removes the smoke stack & carries it over the hill the tunnel is in to meet the train on the other side. All the technology is crude & the engine appears to be less than 1 horse power as a horse stops the trip.This film being 1925 on the Kino Version I watched was Keaton as an Indian. There was also a musical background & at times the special effects like the train whistle blowing can be heard by the viewer. This film is entirely in black & white & is pretty much a pleasant train trip in the afternoon.There is not a lot of gags though the highlight is a man running from an Indian during the attack. As the Indian closes in he decides to remove his toupee & throw it back at the Indian. Turns out the toupee & possibly the Indian Costumes were made by- Sears Roebuck
MartinHafer This is an Al St. John silent comedy short. Although he is completely unknown today, he starred in a few movies with Buster Keaton--and it was from Buster he obtained the very, very old fashioned train for this film. In the Keaton film, OUR HOSPITALITY (by the way, it's one of the greatest films he ever did), the train was also featured just a few months earlier. Here in this short, the train is pulled out of mothballs and is featured.This movie is a very leisurely paced film about one of the earliest railway lines in America. It shows the train slowly departing and follows it through the journey. The scenes are cute and interesting, but no real belly laughs or excitement either.FYI--late in the film a group of Indians attack the train. Supposedly one of them is Buster Keaton in a cameo. I watched for this but couldn't clearly tell if this is true--the only adequate quality of the print didn't help.
Snow Leopard In this short comedy, Al St. John makes pretty good use of a rare chance to play the lead role. It's also good to see the train from Keaton's "Our Hospitality" get a chance to be used in another 'role'. It was a wonderful prop, and though "The Iron Mule" is not quite up to the standard of Keaton's own features, it's good entertainment in its own right.The story is simple, with "The Iron Mule" encountering a series of obstacles and disruptions along the way, but some of the gags and gadgets are pretty creative (such as the river crossing segment). It moves at a good pace, and although they could have gotten more mileage out of some of the material, it's entertaining and certainly worth watching.