Adapted by Leo Ditrichstein from an earlier German farce, Are You a Mason? served as one of John Barrymore's most popular stage vehicles. The film version likewise starred Barrymore, who breezed through the assignment with the youthful panache that would leave him all too soon. The hero, a young bridegroom, manages to get out of all sorts of scrapes by pretending to be a Mason, supremely confidant that he'll either be rescued or forgiven by his "fellow" Masons. Things get hairy when it turns out that Barrymore's new father-in-law has likewise been posing as a Mason for years, and for many of the same reasons. Hoping to make the material more "cinematic," director Thomas M. Heffron attempted at one point to stage a drunk scene from the drunk's besotted point of view. Charlie Chaplin was more successful with this gimmick in his 1916 two-reeler One AM.
by Hal Erickson
synopsis
