Somewhere in Any Place

Somewhere in Any Place is a short silent comedy from 1917 that slots into Larry Semon's prolific run of Vitagraph sketches. With his usual vaudeville energy, Semon presents a farce built around a bungling Captain S. Service, his diligent stenographer, and a shadowy intruder dubbed Mr X the Spy. The film appears to spoof espionage melodrama by piling sight gags, mistaken identities, and rapid-fire pratfalls onto a briskly paced chase plot. The set pieces lean on slapstick rather than dialogue, letting quick actions and physical gags carry the humor. Unfortunately, like many Semon productions of the era, the work is presently considered lost, and no complete print survives for modern audiences to judge. Its fortunes, like its prints, remain uncertain.

Directed by Larry Semon for Vitagraph in 1917, the short bears a story credit to C. Graham Baker. It fits Semon's repertoire of rapid action, visual gags, and brisk ensemble slapstick. Its production credits reflect the era's collaborative cinematic setup.

Box office figures for this 1917 Vitagraph short are not publicly documented; as with many silent era releases, grosses were not consistently preserved, and contemporary box score records for individual shorts are scarce. Box office data are scarce indeed today.

There are no major awards on record for this limited run. The era's industry did not routinely award short slapstick comedies, and if any nominations existed, they did not leave a lasting archival trace. Contemporary records mention none and awards were rare for shorts.

Reception and themes are inferred from Semon's body of work rather than contemporary reviews, since the film is lost. It likely emphasizes spoof and rapid physical humor, pairing a pompous captain with a scheming spy to lampoon espionage tropes, a hallmark of Semon's wartime comedies. Its exact reception remains unknown. Such records shape early slapstick memory.