image from Yes, Lucy. Chicago Film Archives
English (title cards)
00:13:53
16mm
B&W
Silent
"After a day of domestic squabbling, an imposing wife and bumbling husband have their furniture appraised. When two men show up as assessors the confusion begins, ultimately giving the husband a chance to prove himself." Chicago Film Archives
Part of the Margaret Conneely collection held by Chicago Film Archives
Metropolitan Amateur Movie Club of Chicago
Margaret Conneely Collection, Chicago Film Archives
"00:01 - Title cards printed on pages that are turned: Metro Movie Club Presents Its 1948.... (obstructed by time code) - “Yes Lucy” - List of cast members. 00:23 - A distraught woman, Lucy, takes a phone call about selling her furniture before pacing to a chair where she sits and weeps, handkerchief in hand. Her husband returns home and she berates him, growing increasingly upset. She instructs him in various duties to which he replies with meek nod and “Yes Lucy”. 03:49 - MS wife begins dusting a table as the husband sits, getting an idea. He sneaks upstairs into a room with toy train tracks. As Lucy receives a gossiping friend in the kitchen he begins playing with the trains. The action intercuts between the rushing trains and Lucy with her babbling friend until the friend leaves. This scene includes nice CU footage of the train on the tracks. 06:30 - Lucy yells up the stairs to her husband. He makes silly faces in response (which she cannot see). This exchange repeats until he joins her in the sitting room, where she taps her toes impatiently. 07:40 – CU door knocker as the assessor arrives, CU on ribbon “City Assessor”. As Lucy and the Assessor leave the front hall, her husband throws his hat on the ground, frustrated. Lucy shows the assessor around in MS and CU as they haggle over the value of her furniture. Back in the front hall the husband paces. There is a knock on the door and a cigar smoking man enters. He is also here to buy the furniture. Soon everyone rejoins in the sitting room. Lucy greets the new man and they leave as the husband converses with the city Assessor. The husband grows more visibly upset. 10:58 - After talking over the price, the new man and Lucy go back to the sitting room where there are numerous exchanges. Lucy signs a contract as her husband distresses. She faints when she sees that she has made the wrong deal. She is revived with smelling salts her husband fetches. 12:57-14:27 - The husband scolds the cigar smoking swindler and demands the contract back. CU as the swindler makes absurd faces, teasing him. The husband kicks him out violently, with a cut to the reactions of the others in the next room. He makes a deal with the City Assessor and is proud of himself when his wife approves. He forgets himself in his pride and spits on the floor, then receives a scolding." Notes via Chicago Film Archives
Amateur Cinema