The Adventures of Algy

Claude Dampier and his cousin Eric Harrison are to share their mutual uncle's estate in New Zealand. What Harrison knows and Dampier does not is that the first to arrive gets first choice of two properties. So after telling his amour, dancer Billie Carlyle he's going to Paris for a couple of days, the men head off. But to make sure he gets the working sheep station and not the distant patch of land that might have oil, Harrison dopes Dampier before they get on the boat leaving Australia for Wellington. Harrison claims the valuable station and makes a play for the manager's daughter, Bathie Stuart. She loves Algie, and he her, but he hasn't figured it out yet. So she goes off to star in a leg show in Australia, where she and Miss Carlyle, who has come looking for Harrison, become friends.

Despite the title, this is more the adventures of Miss Stuart than the movie's namesake as she fights off Harrison, who appears at random moments to torment her and offer her marriage.. Perhaps much amusing business was left on the stage; Dampier was very popular in Australia, where this movie was made, playing a character called "The Professional Idiot". Her,e his idiocy is limited to taking people at face value. In the 1930s, Dampier returned to Britain, where he became a popular supporting comic in the movies. He died in 1955 at the age of 76.

Given the poor survival rate among Australian silents, it's hard to be certain, but this one is more melodrama than comedy. In fact, it's no comedy at all, if funny stuff is your go-to for the art.