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Film / Double Trouble (1915)

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Double Trouble is a 1915 film directed by Christy Cabanne.

Florian Amidon (Douglas Fairbanks, in only his second movie) is a banker, a rather wimpy young man, who in his spare time is the President of the Sabbath Day Society. Florian is petrified of women and can't even begin to talk to them—in fact, being near a woman seems to make him sneeze.

One day in 1910 Florian goes off on a vacation and gets clubbed on the head by thieves at a train station. He wakes up—and it is 1915. Wondering just where the heck five years went, Florian goes to a medium who puts him under hypnosis, and finds out the truth. For the past five years Florian has been Eugene Brassfield, a tough-as-nails businessman who came to in an oil boomtown called Bakerstown, and established himself a petroleum empire. He has not one but two girlfriends, the sweet and innocent Elizabeth (Margery Wilson, who this same year starred in Intolerance), and the rather more sexual Daisy. "Eugene" is running for mayor of Bakerstown and is expected to win. He is also a bad guy, being a violent drunk as well as a crook, who is spreading bribes all over town, is basically buying the mayoral election, and who doesn't hesitate to have a man that threatened to expose him framed and jailed.

Gentle, mild-mannered Florian is not at all able to handle Eugene's business empire or political career or to deal with the thugs that Eugene has been working with. So the medium, Madame Leclaire, puts him under hypnosis and brings the "Eugene" personality out. Comic merriment ensues as the two split personalities, milquetoast Florian and aggressive alpha male Eugene, take turns being in control.


Tropes:

  • Alcohol Hic: When Eugene gets drunk as a lord and gets violent at a bar, assaulting the bartender, he has to be taken home. As he's still throwing punches at his buddies, Madame Leclaire hypnotizes him. When gentle Florian wakes up, he starts hiccuping drunk.
  • Artistic License – Medicine: A title card calls Florian's amnesia and new secondary personality as "aphasia". That is not what aphasia is at all: aphasia is a condition in which brain damage causes one to lose the ability to speak or understand verbal or written language. This is lampshaded by this note:
    "Editor's note: Aphasia is a mental condition, vouched for by all our best novelists and dramatists."
  • Betty and Veronica: Elizabeth and Daisy. On his cuff links Florian has a note to kiss Elizabeth "respectfully", and so he does, with a chaste peck on the cheek. On his other cuff link he has a note saying that he's "crazy about" Daisy, and indeed she's a lot less shy about kissing him.
  • Camp Gay: Eugene Brassfield may have been bisexual, if the scene with the hotel porter is any indication. The porter has an overtly mincing feminine manner, putting his hand on his hips and sashaying around. The movie even uses Funetik Aksent title cards to give the porter a camp gay lisp.
    The porter: Oh Mr. Brassfueld, now you thop!
  • Corrupt Politician: Eugene, who engaged in graft and bribery as a businessman and who is now spreading bribes all over town as he campaigns for mayor. When an idealistic town resident named Gilmore says he's going to expose Eugene, Eugene has him framed and arrested on trumped-up charges.
  • Cannot Talk to Women: Florian the wimp is struck dumb with fear when women try to talk to him.
  • Happily Failed Suicide: With her husband locked up in prison, Mrs. Gilmore decides to gas herself and the children. Eugene doesn't care, but after the Florian personality is put back in charge, he rushes over to the Gilmore apartment and saves them Just in Time.
  • Identity Amnesia: Florian wakes up from his Tap on the Head as Eugene, a completely new and very very different person. Afterwards, his two selves basically become split personalities that Madame Leclaire can call forth at will.
  • Sexy Secretary: Florian's fear of women is demonstrated in an early scene where his good-looking secretary makes an obvious pass at him, putting her hand on his arm, only for Florian to flee in horror.
  • Split Personality: Eugene the hyper-agressive businessman was born as a second personality when Florian was bonked on the head. Madame Leclaire can switch him from one to another, like how she switches Florian back over to Eugene when Eugene's thuggish partners-in-crime show up at the office.
  • Split-Personality Takeover: Sort of. As the ending title cards specifically state, Florian got blended with Eugene. So while New Florian remains a fundamentally decent guy and marries Elizabeth, he also has enough of Eugene's fearless aggressiveness to face down the gangsters that Eugene used to work with, and tell them to get lost.
  • Time Skip: Five years from when Florian gets bonked on the head in 1910 to the Florian personality taking over again in 1915.
  • Wedding Ring Removal: Elizabeth removes her wedding ring and gives it back to Eugene after catching him with his other woman.

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