Silent Film of the Month: Tommy Tucker's Tooth (1922)

 

Studio: Laugh-O-Grams. Runtime: 10 mins Director: Walt Disney. Producer: Walt Disney. Cast: John W. Records. Cinematographer: Walt Pfeiffer.  

One of the best things about being a Disney fan is that there is always another area of Disney history to explore. One of the most fascinating (and often overlooked) parts of Disney history is Walt's silent films. While thanks to the California Adventure theme park and the Epic Mickey video games, some people today have a familiarity with the Oswald the Lucky Rabbitt cartoons, his other silent films are unknown to even some people who would call themselves, diehard Disney fans today. However, there are some real gems and historically fascinating films to discover for anyone who wishes to dig into this area of Disney history, including my Silent Film of the Month, Tommy Tucker's Tooth. 


When this film was made, Walt Disney was anything but a household name. Instead, he was a struggling cartoonist, trying to make a living in the movie industry. It was when Walt was in this situation that Dr. Thomas B. McCrum from the Deaner Dental Insitute offered Walt $500 to make a film about good dental care that would be shown to school children. Naturally Walt took up the offer. It was agreed quickly that the film would be in live action, which was faster and cheaper. 

This film has two young boys try out for the same job. Tommy Tucker takes good care of his teeth, while Jimminy Jones does not. I think you can all see where this is going. 

I am not going to pretend that this is an overlooked Disney masterpiece, but it is great viewing for anyone interested in Disney history. It has the historical importance of being the first live action Disney film. While the filmmaking is pretty standard, it is well done. The film looks does a great job of telling this story visually. Though this film has intertitles, if they weren't there you could still follow the story very well. The acting of the kids is quite good and the short moves by at a quick pace without ever once losing interest. The short does a great job of getting its message across and you can still picture this working for kids today. On the other hand this is very basic stuff and there is no denying that anyone familiar with educational films will find anything here they hadn't seen a million times before. 

John W. Records (who would go on to a medical career himself) remembered working on this film, "I don't recall any script - if we had a script, I didn't see it - but he [Walt Disney] knew exactly what he wanted us to do. And he would act things out. I can't think of any specifics, but I do have a very strong recollection of how organized and prepared he was. It was all very informal - I mean, he liked children, it was obvious and he knew how to handle us. I was impressed with that too, because the way he did it, why, it was fun." 

This film can be found on YouTube for those interested. 

Resources Used

Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney by Russell Merrit and J.B. Kaufman.