director: Scott Sidney
year: 1921
country: USA
history notes: Unidentified Film No. 241
alternative titles: Rolle dein Heim / Das rollende Haus

This film has been identified thanks to contributions from members of the Lost FIlms community.

1st IT: "Rolle dein Heim!" (Roll Your Home!) [frame scan 1] A little girl plays with paint while her father and mother construct a wooden house (something at which they appear to be rather inept) [frame scan 2&3]. The girl runs off and sits down next to two Afro-American children eating a melon by the roadside [frame scan 4]. The parents go looking for their child, discovering her only after their dog licks her blackened face clean. They tie the girl to a tree with a rope. "Kein Mensch quatscht dir mehr was drein - " (Nobody's going to interfere with you anymore) Only after they have completed the house, do they realise they've built it on the wrong spot. "Das ist doch unser Grundstücksanteil." (That's our property) / "Der Platz hier ist schon lange verkauft. Ihr Grundstück liegt 5 Kilometer südlich!" (This plot was sold long ago. Yours is 5km south from here!) [frame scan 5] / "Jetzt müssen wirs halt nochmal einreißen..." (Now we just have to take it apart again...) / "Warum ist denn unser fabelhaftes Haus ganz transportabel?" (Why do that, when our fabulous house is completely portable?) When an accident occurs in front of the house, they are able to buy the car cheaply. "Für 10 Dollar können sie ganze Vehikel haben." (For 10 dollars you can have the whole vehicle) / "Sie geben mirs aber auch für 5!" (But you'll also give it to me for 5!) Using the car, they tow the house. Then the rope breaks and the house moves off on its own, stopping in the middle of a crossroads [frame scan 6]. Inside, the mother bathes the girl, undisturbed. A decline gets the house moving again - stopping at exactly the right plot, Number 13! Officials show up [frame scan 7]: "Haben Sie auf diesem Platz Bauerlaubnis?" (Do you have permission to build on this site?) - "Dann muß das Haus abgerissen werden!" (Then the house must be demolished!) The man protests: "Nur über meine Leiche geht der Weg!!" (Only over my dead body... !!!) The house collapses. The child resumes playing in the mud. The mud bubbles conspicuously: "Schatz! Petroleum!!!" (Treasure! Petroleum!) - "Jetzt können wir unser Haus bauen, wie und wo wir wollen!!!" (Now we can build our house however and wherever we want!!!) - "Zwar nicht nach 3 Stunden, aber nach 3 Monaten..." (Sure enough, but after 3 months, not 3 hours...) A large, representative brick-house [frame scan 8]: "Freundliche Zimmer nur für Familien mit Kindern und Hunden! Alles besetzt!" (Friendly rooms for families with children and dogs only! Fully booked!) In the garden, a lot of dogs frolic and numerous children amuse themselves in the playground [frame scan 9] - End Title.

Length: 227m
Format: 35mm, 1.33:1
Picture/Sound: b/w, silent
Notes: 'AGFA' (pointed 'A') edgecode; German intertitles

Source notes
Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen

This is the 12/25/1921 Christie Comedy NO PARKING starring Neal Burns. Here's a review from the 12/4/1921 issue of Film Daily (pg. 19):

"NO PARKING - Christie - Educational
Type of Production.............................2 Reel Comedy
Neal Burns, Helen Darling and Jane Hart are featured in this Christie comedy which gets most of its fun out of a portable bungalow. The husband, wife, baby and dog arrive in California in flivver. As they have great difficulty in finding a hotel that will allow babies and dogs they buy a lot and a portable bungalow. After putting it up they discover that they built the house over the baby, so they tear it all down and set it up again. But just before they move in a real estate agent arrives to tell them that they built upon the wrong lot. They put the house on wheels and tow it through the town - but the rope breaks and the house runs wild. After placing it upon the proper lot the inspectors inform them that a building permit is required and once more the house is knocked down. But during this time the baby was making mud pies out of what turned to be an oil well. There are quite a few laughs in this two-reeler which is above the average of the series."

The info on the films is:

NO PARKING (12/25/1921) Prod: Al Christie. Dir: Scott Sidney. Dist: Educational Pictures. 2 reels. Cast: Neal Burns, Helen Darling, Jane Hart.

Thanks to this identification by Steve Massa, we've been able to identify the same film in our archive as well.
Suzan Crommelin, EYE Film Institute Netherlands