Charles Servaès

Accident-prone Polycarpe wreaks havoc on a construction site—a popular location for so many early film comedies.

Accident-prone Polycarpe wreaks havoc on a construction site—a popular location for so many early film comedies.

The homeless Polycarpe steals a rifle from some careless society sportsmen and goes on a mindless shooting spree. (MoMA)

Charles Servaes decides it's time to get out of the city, so he ties an abandoned bath tub to a truck and lets it tow him to the seaside. Once there, he spends his time talking to the camera with a self-satisfied smirk and annoying the people around him until the police carry him and his bath tub to the pokey.

Charles Servaes finds a coin on the ground and takes possession. When he tries to use it to pay for his cab ride, the cabbie says it's counterfeit. Sorry! I've nothing else, being a comic slapstick bum, indicates Servaes, and goes on his way to not pay a succession of people.

Polycarpe is in the cavalry in this one. He gets a date with the hefty young woman who seems to work in the dungeon of the barracks. However, while another soldier makes time with his girl, Polycarpe can't seem to get off base for one reason or another.

Charles Servaes playing Polycarpe is cooking some eggs in his residential hotel. What do you need when you want to cook eggs?A clean chimney that won't kill you. So he takes a chimney brish up to the roof and gets to work. This does not please the other residents, when he pushes soot down their chimney into their rooms!

Charles Servaes as Polycarpe becomes an inspector of sort; he goes around measure the length of women's skirts in Paris to make sure they don't reveal tooo much leg for the moral Apaches of Montmartre.

Polycarpe wants to sleep, but the woman of the house beats him awake. When he falls back asleep, his shoes tie themselves, as does his cravat. Indeed, everything works for him when he sleeps.

Polycarpe -- that's Charles Servaes -- encounters a painter in a museum. He strikes a funny pose and the painter decides he wants to paint that picture. However a succession of obstacles get in their way.

Polycarpe gets himself a suit with a big neck.