Felix in Hollywood (1923)

Our story opens on a hungry ham actor pacing the floor. As Felix watches him, the thespian decides to throw art away and get into the movies. He sends Felix out to find money enough to feed them and provide transportation to Hollywood. An ill-tempered Felix wonders “How does he expect me to get money?” 

The wily cat passes a shoe store that is going out of business due to bankruptcy. Felix tells the moaning owner that he has a plan to sell every shoe in the shop, to which the now hopeful man replies that it would be worth $500 if the scheme works. The deal is struck.

The plan is as simple as it is nefarious. Felix feeds a handful of pennies into a gum machine. He pops all the gum in his mouth at once, chaws it, then places the wads of sticky gum all over. “Soon the whole town was gummed up.” When their shoes stick to the pavement, people have to buy new ones. 

Returning to the actor with cash in hand, Felix is angered to discover that the ham plans to leave him behind when he moves to Hollywood. Felix, who has the ability to change his appearance, disguises himself as the actor’s handbag and is carried to LaLa Land. On arrival, Felix finds Static Studio and tells us “I’ll try this joint.”

He finds one of the dressing rooms and peeks through the keyhole and spies one of the studio’s reigning vamps. “Oh boy!” As he gets an eyeful, cleverly caracitured Ben Turpin taps him on the shoulder and warns him to cut it out. “That’s how I got like this,” says the permanently cross-eyed comic.

The rest of the film finds Felix interacting with caricatures of well-known stars, including Charlie Chaplin and William S. Hart. When he sees Douglas Fairbanks tied to a post and under attack by Three Muskeeters, he goes into rescue mode. The final Muskeeter looks daggers at him and Felix grabs one of the knives, now a sword, and duels the sinister mosquito to the end.

The shot jumps back and we discover that what we’ve just been watching is a movie being filmed by none other than C.B. DeMille, who is so impressed with Felix’ talent he gives the cat a long term contract on the spot.

The Felix prototype was called Master Tom. By his third film outing he was slightly redesigned and rechristened with his now famous name. Pat Sullivan, a cartoonist originally from Australia and in whose studio the Master Tom films had been made, claimed that he created Felix and that the name came from “Australia Felix”—Happy Australia—an area of western Victoria. American animator Otto Mesmer, who actually made the cartoons, also claimed paternity and said the name came directly from the Latin—felis, cat, and felix, lucky.

Felix’ first film released with the character’s now common name was The Adventures of Felix in 1919.

The animation style is quite simple. Black and white, with basic line drawings and no shading. Felix himself is solid black, almost an animated ink blot. Mesmer found shapes easier to work with.

The cartoon is a treat for fans of silent film, and the sometime surreal surroundings and situations can be surprising.