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Like his Two-Chinned Chow, released the same year, Adrian Brunel's Yes, We Have No - ! (1923), uses a live-action version of the silhouette technique developed by the German animator Lotte Reiniger. Whereas the former film had self-consciously spoofed Reiniger's fantastical, fairytale style, however, in Yes, We Have No - ! Brunel develops his own distinctive approach.
The unfortunate Mr Tom Arto's antipathy to the music hall favourite 'Yes, We Have No Bananas' - because he is a vegetarian, naturally - drives him to ever more desperate measures, taking him to a nightclub, where he hopes for 'a little Wagner' but again finds the annoying ditty, then home to bed, where he is awoken by his neighbour's tuba practice. Finally he travels the world, only to find at each destination that the tune has got there first.
The film features plenty of Brunel's trademark wordplay and painful punning - 'si, we hav no mañanas,' they sing in Spain - and the diverse locations,
including Japan, Greenland and the Tyrolean mountains, allow for an even richer assortment of beautiful set designs than in Two-Chinned Chow, despite a shorter running time. There is even a little genuine animation, with a cut-out Mr Arto tumbling down a cliff, and some attractively rolling ocean waves as he makes his way home; the offending melody is represented by a flurry of floating crotchets and quavers.
Mark Duguid
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Extract (2:34)
