Silent movies - Sure-Mike!

After last week's short, the plan had been a longer film again this week, but I kept falling asleep before even making it to the chosen one.
Then my favorite silent movie blogger wrote about a one-reeler - "Sure-Mike!" from 1925.

First, the plot (with spoilers).

Vermuda is a shop girl in a department store. 
Mike who does deliveries with his motorcycle has a crush on her, but she pines for the new manager. When he calls her into his office, she's excited, but he only wants her to deliver some parcels.
Coming back to his office, she's so shocked to see him surrounded by his wife and children that she falls out of a window just to land on Mike's motorcyle! Fate?

I really liked Martha Sleeper in "Mum's the Word", so this sounded like it was just what I needed, and it was.
The film was a fun bit of slapstick and Sleeper was hilarious as Vermuda (what a wonderful name).
We first see her rollerskating trying to make up for being late for work - a whole day!

As you can imagine, the way to work can be difficult
on rollerskates, for example if you catch your hand in
a dog leash and get pulled along the sidewalk
while felling people to the left and right. Luckily,
 she lands on Mike's motorcycle for a ride to work.

 

Sleeper is so good at the physical comedy and the faces she pulls crack me up.
To avoid the wrath of the floorwalker and the new manager, Vermuda manages to get to her counter by riding a zip line for clothes hidden by coats, and she fakes a sales talk by dressing up a mannequin (without legs).

The new manager is one of those guys who put perfume
on their eyebrows, what's not to love about him?
Unfortunately, distracted Vermuda packs up something using
the string of the balloon belonging to the customer's kid.
Yup, the parcel flies off.

No rollerskates for the delivery, but a more than full streetcar leads to more problems. I laughed through the whole scene, from Vermuda trying to find a spot to sit safely holding on to the pants of the men already holding on to the streetcar themselves and accidentally swallowing the coin for the fare to being attacked by a horse from behind.
 

The worst shock, however, is seeing the manager on his wife's lap feeding his baby.
After falling right on Mikes delivery storage box, she asks him to take her home.
She's really not lucky with her commute, though, as she loses Mike halfway without noticing it at first.

Oh no! Vermuda on the road all by herself.

No worries, Mike follows her in a car and tells her to jump into his arms at the corner.

Mike to the rescue!
Looks like he might be the right one after all.

Slapstick in high speed can get overwhelming for me, but not this one. I loved every minute, especially Sleeper, and I can only recommend this short.
I'm really late writing this post, so this time I can't go into her interesting career...s - yes, more than one, and so cool.
But she'll be back on here for sure and I'm looking forward to it!

P.S. By the way, one of Vermuda's catty co-workers is Fay Wray of King Kong fame (the one on the right)!

Sources:

1. The Silent Comedy Watch Party ep. 38 on YouTube (the film starts at 17:28)
2. Fritzi Kramer: Sure-Mike! (1925) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, November 9, 2025