The Nut

A silent comedy starring Douglas Fairbanks, directed by Theodore Reed. Fairbanks plays Charlie Butters, an eccentric inventor and self-styled "scientific detective" who tries to win the heart of a beautiful social worker by helping her rescue a young woman from white slavery. The film was intended as a spoof of the detective genre and a showcase for Fairbanks's athletic comedy, but it was one of his few box office disappointments. Still, Fairbanks's boundless energy and physical virtuosity are on full display, and the film offers a fascinating glimpse of the star testing material that would later inform his swashbuckling adventures. The film is in the public domain.