Modeling

After five years at the Bray Studios, and three years of producing OUT OF THE INWELL there, Max and Dave Fleischer left to start their own studio, Out of the Inkwell Films, Inc. in 1921. This was their first release, and is a curious reworking of a theme used in the "Chinaman." In this case, Roland Crandal is a sculptor, and has an ugly man with a big crooked nose for a client. The client is disappointed because the bust looks just like him. Crandal calls on Max for assist-ance. While Max leaves the drawing board, the clown, who was complaining about not having any pep has been put on ice skates. The clown sees the men discussing the problem with the bust, and mocks the client by etching an exact image of the ugly man in the ice. The clown then grabs a mound of snow, and forms his own sculpture in an exact image of the man. Max and Crandal turn and see this, and Max throws a wad of clay at the clown, pinning him to the paper. The client resumes his sitting, and the clown manages to get loose and climbs into the mouth of the sculpture, causing it to wiggle with parts of the nose to breaking off and slinking along like a big worm. This startles the client, causing him to fall backward on the stool. Max and Crandal grab the wod of clay and the clown being made of ink, dissolves out from the clay, and skates his way back to the drawing board. The clown throws the wad of clay used on him and it hits the client. Indignant, the client leaves, hurling a wad of clay meant for Crandal, but hitting Max. Enjoying all this, the clown skates off the paper and hops into the ink bottle. This first effort as independent producers has much more plot, and uses cleaver devices including a combination of cartoon animation with stop motion with the clay bust as used to show the mouth opening with the clown slipping inside. This is also one of the earliest known suriving films that used claymation techniques. Highly entertaining.