Onésime dresseur d'hommes et de chevaux (1913) User Reviews

Moving In

[boblipton · 6/10 · 25 July 2010]

By this time, Jean Durand and his comedy unit at Gaumont were undoubtedly familiar with what was happening in the US; not only the French-inspired stuff that Mack Sennett had been turning out at Biograph and -- quite probably -- the outrageous farce at Keystone, but the comedy unit at Essannay, including the popular 'Snakeville' series that would wind up at Universal.

So he took his popular Onesime series, which specialized in wild special effects, and moved him to the American West, with a few Max-Linder style gags and a couple of outrageous but realistic ones -- check out those snails. The net effect is good, but the Italians were still more outrageous than any French comedy could hope to become.

It's a problem with a comedy just isn't funny.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 7 May 2013]

"Onésime, Trainer of Men and Horses" is a film by Jean Durand and is one of about a billion Onésime comedies the two made together. Some were very good and some, like this one, failed miserably.

In this film, Onésime just never does anything particularly funny--a serious problem when it's intended to be a comedy! The film begins with our hero moving from the East Coast (USA) to the West. There he meets some cowboy types and he gets a job taking care of the burros. Soon, Onésime meets a lady and they hit it off--and a jealous cowboy will have none of it. So, several bizarre things happen. First, the cowboy and his friends toss him into a pit--a pit that is CLEARLY easy to exit and that made zero sense! Second, after the girl helps him escape WITH HER HAIR, Onésime is challenged to a 'boot duel' (????) and ends up winning the lady.

In addition to not being funny, so much of this film made no sense--none. The boot duel and snails just seemed pointless and bizarre. It clearly looked as if the film makers had no idea what to do and should have thought out the plot a bit more. Overall, one of the weakest films in the series.