Welcome back, Balconeers, to another exciting week of outstanding attractions at your favorite online movie theatre. This week we begin, as always, with some animated antics to tickle the ol' rib-bones. And we've got a special treat: a Ko-Ko the clown cartoon! It's called Ko-Ko Needles the Boss and it was released in 1927.

As we begin, Max Fleischer is busily at work on his drawing board, giving us Ko-Ko the clown for another silly adventure.

Yikes! This time, there's been a tragic accident. Max's hangnail has ripped the drawing page asunder, and poor Ko-Ko is jigsawed! Will his li'l clown guts soon be leaking all over the paper?

Fret not, fans, because Max is as handy with a needle and thread as he is with a drawing pen, and he soon has the page and the clown all stitched up.

Max'd better hold on to that thread, though... methinks he's going to need it again!

Koko is tired of being jabbed in the butt by the boss (aren't we all?), grabs the needle and challenges Max to a duel. Fleischer grabs his weapon of choice and we're all going to find out if the pen really IS mightier than the sword!
Max receives a wound, but it probably will not prove fatal. Still, while he's distracted, Ko-Ko takes advantage of the situation and escapes from the drawing table. That means trouble! Ko-Ko spies some string on the boss's desk, and has an idea. A wonderful idea. A wonderful, evil, awful idea!
Soon, the boss's entire office and parlor are covered with string. It's half animation studio, half spider web.

Ko-Ko is hoisted on his own petard, so to speak, and finds himself going back into the inkwell. His hat is the last part of him we'll see in this cartoon, but he doesn't exclaim, "My awful wickedness! What a world!" as he goes. Of course, this cartoon IS silent.

Ko-Ko Needles the Boss is available on the Out of the Inkwell Vol. 2-3 DVD from inkwellimagesink.com. Tell 'em In The Balcony sent ya!

Now, you knew we'd get to a Charley Chase short sooner or later, and this week must be sooner. Fate's Fathead was directed by Charley and released in 1934.This two-reeler features Dorothy Appleby as Mrs. Chase, Dorothy Granger as Fanny, Richard Alexander as The Other Husband, and future Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel as Mandy.
As our story opens, Charley and Dorothy awake, dress, and dance to the breakfast table while singing a delightful song (written by Chase?) called "How About Another Cup of Coffee?" You never saw a couple so devoted to each other.
Over in the park, though, there's another couple and they're not getting along so well. It seems that the woman claims that men keep flirting with her all day long, and her husband insists it's all in her imagination.

"Well, you're IMAGINING I'm going to cook your dinner tonight!" she yells.

If the husband looks like Prince Barin from Flash Gordon, that's only because he IS Prince Barin from Flash Gordon.

The husband stomps off, leaving Fanny to sulk. Just then, Charlie -- who's walking through the park on his way to work -- starts waving and cooing at a baby. Fanny thinks Charley's being a masher, and she exits the park. By coincidence, though, she and Charley are headed the same way, and the two of them keep bumping into each other.
Charley thoughtfully stops at a florist to buy flowers for his wife, but accidently hands the card to Fanny instead of the florist. She reads the card and is appalled. Fanny slaps Charley but good and leaves him bewildered as she runs off.
That evening, shortly after Charley arrives home, who should show up at the door but Fanny, who is an old friend of Dorothy's! Fanny explains that she's had a spat with her husband, and Dorothy invites her for dinner. Charley, cowering in the back room from the strange woman that slugged him, thinks of taking drastic action.
Dorothy tells Fanny that after dinner, she'll call Fanny's husband, and just in case they spot that masher again, she'll "tell him to bring his gun!"Although Charley is making himself scarce, Fanny spots his picture and advises Dorothy that HE is the man that pestered her all morning. Dorothy refuses to believe it, so Fanny says she'll prove it.
While Dorothy hides behind the curtains, Fanny throws herself at Charley, much to his chagrin. Eventually, he figures out what's going on, and decides to play his part to the hilt. "I had no idea I had this power over women!" He tells her pantingly, "Call me 'Twitter' -- because that's what your proximity causes my heart to do!"
Mandy walks in on the carnal goings-on in the parlor, and she's got an idea how to prevent Dorothy from discovering what "Twitter" and Fanny are up to.
Dorothy, thinking Charley's really a lothario, is dressed and packed and ready to go home to mother's. Fortunately, Man-Mountain shows up and explains how paranoid Fanny is about men. Unfortunately, Mandy doesn't hear the story and she's loaded for bear. 
In the end, Mandy chases off Mr. and Mrs. Man-Mountain and Charley and Dorothy are left, happy again, singing a reprise of their coffee song. Wedded bliss never looked so blissful.Fate's Fathead is not available on DVD. Please don't buy Hallmark cards.
Okay, time for the latest episode of our thrilling serial, The Hurricane Express starring John Wayne. As we recall from last week, John had been overpowered by the Wrecker, who then escaped wearing a John Wayne mask. As it turns out this week, John wasn't really shot (the bullet missed), but he did get clunked in the cabeza with a chair.
The John Wayne Wrecker doubles back, snatches up the John Wayne John Wayne, and dumps him into the Wreckermobile. He intends to take him to the old mine and force him to reveal where that darn gold is hidden.

The John Wayne Wrecker is spotted by Stratton, Gloria's father, but inasmuch as the Wrecker now has the physique and proportionate strength of the actual John Wayne, it's a small matter to beat the old guy into submission and get on with his plan.

Meanwhile, the Wrecker's men are having a friendly game of canasta. These wild parties must stop!

Gloria, whom we will recall was fired by Edwards last week for ignoring her duties while she spied on him for her escaped convict father (all of which are prohibited by the railroad's Employee Manual) is hired by Gray to work as his secretary over at the airways. He has an ulterior motive, I'll bet.

Stratton phones Gloria (father's instinctively know where and how to contact their daughter on their first day at a new job) and tells her that the Wrecker has Wayne and his taking him to the old mine, and Gloria calls Edwards, and Edwards calls the RR dicks.

Meanwhile, Wayne stalls like mad.

In later years, when John was asked about the three serials he made, he's smile, stand up without saying a word, and go punch a hippie.
The RR dicks arrive and the bullets fly. The real John Wayne jumps the Wrecker and pummels him mercilessly until Blinky shows up and conks the Duke over the head with a stick. The Wrecker runs off to his private plane to escape.
One of the RR dicks trails the Wrecker to the plane and rips off his mask. "You're -- you're..." is all the dick can say before he's silenced by a bullet. Continued next week!
Well, now that the preliminaries are over, let's all take advantage of this timely intermission to head to the potty and then visit the snack bar for the latest in practically fresh snacks and nearly cold sodas. Meet ya back here in a few minutes to begin our FEATURE PRESENTATION.