Cruel and Unusual Comedy

Cruel and Unusual Comedy from the Desmet Collection of the Eye Institute, Amsterdam

2011-10-25T11:48:00.010-04:00

Sunday, October 30 at 2:30pm:
Cruel and Unusual Comedy from the Desmet Collection of the EYE Institute, Amsterdam

Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator Research and Collections, Department of Film and Media, Steve Massa, film historian and author, and Ben Model, film historian and accompanist; in collaboration with archivist Elif Kaynakci, EYE Film Institute.

With live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin and his NYC Eclectic Electric Band.

Approx 110 min., plus a 15-minute intermission.

"Cruel and Unusual Comedy: Social Commentary in the American Slapstick Film" in a film series conceived and curated by Ron Magliozzi, Ben Model and Steve Massa and has been presented at MoMA in 2009 and 2010.

The basic concept behind "Cruel and Unusual Comedy" is to present silent slapstick shorts by featuring certain aspects of society and the human condition expressed through physical comedy, rather than showcasing a particular well-known comedian. Hundreds of "orphan" comedy shorts made by the dozens of forgotten clowns of the silent screen, are held in the film archive at MoMA – and in archives worldwide – and are still entertaining and deserving of exhibition to audiences today.

Today's program, showcasing rare early comedy shorts from the Desmet Collection of the EYE Institute (Amsterdam), is the third annual installment of the series, and is a sort of "highlights reel" of a complete 5-progam series that will be presented at MoMA during 2012. These rare European comedy shorts are predecessors and influences of the work of Mack Sennett's Keystone comedies (Keystone celebrates its 100th birthday in 2012) and are in some cases more outrageous and surreal than their American counterparts. The EYE Institute has a huge collection of these films by the "Euro-clowns", and we are thrilled and honored to have this partnership to present these rare and hilarious films to a U.S. audience.

film notes by Steve Massa:

Zigoto et la locomotive (1912)
series theme: "Mass Destruction"
Gaumont. Dir: Jean Durand. Cast: Lucien Bataille, Ernest Bourbon, Alphonse Foucher, Gaston Modot. (6 min)

When the train men go on strike, Zigoto terrorizes the town in a hijacked locomotive.

As Zigoto, comic Lucien Bataille is one of more quietly eccentric denizens of the outrageous European film comedy universe. In some ways his body language and comedic attitude foreshadows Jacques Tati as Zigoto ambles to a decidedly different drummer. Bataille left Gaumont in 1912 and headlined in a new series for Éclair where he was re-dubbed Casimir. He later worked as a character actor in films such as Le Miracle des loup (Miracle of the Wolves 1924) and La Coquille et la clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman 1928).

Signora Robinet (a.k.a. Madamigella Robinet) (1912)
series theme: "Sexual Misconduct"
Ambrosio. Dir: Marcel Perez (Fabre). Cast: Marcel Perez (Fabre), Nilde Barrachi, Ernest Vaser. (7 min)

Robinet disguises himself as a woman to get away from his girlfriend’s husband, and discovers the unexpected pleasures of public drag amidst mobs of flirtatious men.

Robinet is Marcel Fabre, an ex-circus clown who began appearing in French films in 1900, and was hired by the Ambrosio Company of Turin in 1910 to star in this series. Born in Spain as Manuel Fernandez Perez, he worked under various versions of that name and made five years worth of Robinet misadventures before heading to the United States in 1915. With Max Linder he was one the few direct links between European and American silent comedy, and continued his prolific output until an on the set accident brought his performing career to a close. Later he directed and wrote films until the late 1920s.

Mr. Smith fait l’ourerture (1914)
series theme: "Tales of Madness"
Gaumont. Dir: Jean Durand. (6 min)

Anarchy and madness result when a plague of rabbits overrun the country home of an unrepentant hunter, in this “day of the lepus” farce.

Jean Durand, along with Romeo Bosetti, was one of the top and most prolific comedy creators of European silent comedy. In addition to the popular Onesime and Zigoto series, starting in 1907 he directed all kinds of comedies with performers on the order of Maurice Chevalier, Gaston Modot, and Clement Mege, not to mention numerous early western shorts. His later work included series with Marcel Levesque as Serpentin, and Berthe Dagmar as Marie, before he finished his twenty-two year career with the 1929 feature The Ideal Woman.

Bebe soigné son pere (a.k.a. De vader van Bebe geroelt zich reruland ziek) (1912)
series theme: "Domestic Abuse"
Gaumont. Dir: Louis Feuillade. Cast: Rene Dary. (9 min)

A mischievous child feeds his father a laxative leading to disruptive bouts of intestinal disorder and an unexpected reward.

Beginning in 1910, this series showcased Louis Feuillade’s five year-old discovery Clement Mary, with the precocious imp tormenting his bourgeois parents in seventy-four entries made through 1913. Problems with the boy’s real-life show business parents led to his being replaced by the younger Bout de Zan. Later re-appearing as an adult under the name Rene Dary, he was busy until his death in 1974.

Amour et musique (a.k.a. Met muzieken hindirnissen) (1911)
series theme: "Musical Comedy"
Pathe – Nizza. (4 min)

Working apart, a pair of off-key male and female street performers are assaulted by unappreciative music lovers, until an arrest brings them together, and they discover their power to make beautiful music.

This short is an example of the many creators of these comedies – directors, writers and performers – who are unknown and overlooked. Most came from music halls or circuses, and after a short jaunt in films returned there. Since movies weren’t particularly highly regarded many weren’t anxious to advertise that they were working in them and didn’t give them a second thought. Even some performers who had their own starring series, such as the actress who plays the stupid servant Cunegonde and the child who was the bratty Leontine, are a source of mystery today.

Onesime horlogmaker (1912)
series theme: "Science Fiction"
Gaumont. Dir: Jean Durand. Cast: Ernest Bourbon, Gaston Modot, Paul Bertho. (7 min)

In an effort to secure a promised inheritance, Onesime invents a time machine that speeds up activity on earth, hyper-animates men and machines, and telescopes the human life-cycle.

This is probably the best known film of this group, thanks to its memorable time-tripping elements. Star Ernest Bourbon had created the Onesime character in the music halls, so it was already well-developed when he brought it to films. His outfit of the jacket, grey bowler, with white spats and gloves, gave an air of would-be sophistication to this inept bungler. The Onesime films were definitely a strong influence on the young Rene Clair, which can be plainly seen in his early films such as At 3:25 (a.k.a. The Crazy Ray) and The Imaginary Voyage (both 1925).

* INTERMISSION *

Le pendu (1906)
series theme: "Domestic Abuse"
Pathe. Dir: Louis Gasner. Cast: Max Linder. (7 min)

Suffering from unrequited love, Max hangs himself from a tree, and ends up hanging for hours while local townspeople squabble over whose responsibility it is to rescue him.

In addition to being the best known comic in this program, Max Linder was the first international comedy movie star. The most sophisticated screen comic before the arrival of Chaplin, Linder’s popularity led to two production forays to the United States, neither of which were successful or satisfying for the comedian. As in this short, despair and suicide were frequent motifs in Linder’s films, and are a chilling reminder that he took his own life in 1925.

Der neuer erwerbszweig (a.k.a. Een niewe werkkring) (1912)
series theme: "Science Fiction"
Messters Projection GmbH. Cast: Curt Bois. (8 min)

A love doctor successfully produces men on order for needy women, until his system for delivering them – through the mail as puppets in canisters - goes awry.

Although French and Italian comedies dominated cinemas at the time, and today get the lion’s share of film scholarship, slapstick shorts were being made everywhere. Popular clowns in Germany included Rudi Bach as “Purzel” and stage clown Karl Valentine, while England had Fred Evans as “Pimple.” This German short doesn’t feature an established comic hero, but instead is part of the rich tradition of the “trick films.” The early “trick films” of masters such as George Melies and Segundo de Chomon were full of grotesque and gruesome imagery, but essentially comic, and the tradition continued and reached its apex in the late 1920s shorts of Charley Bowers.

Robinet troppo amato da sue moglie (a.k.a. Robinet wordt te veel bemiel) (1912)
series theme: "Sexual Misconduct"
Ambrosio. Dir: Marcel Perez (Fabre). Cast: Marcel Perez (Fabre), Gigetta Morano, Nilde Baracchi. (7 min)

Robinet escapes from his wife’s smothering devotion to the adventure of lovemaking outside marriage.

Showcased along with Marcel Fabre in this short is another of the Ambrosio Company’s popular stars – Gigetta Morano. From 1909 to 1920 Morano appeared in over one hundred and forty films for the studio, most of them done with her real-life partner Eleuterio Rodolfi. Gigetta was the first lady of Italian comedy films, and Rodolfi directed as well as co-starred. The strength of films such as Mam’selle Nitouche (1912) and Acqua Miracolosa (1914) enabled her to move beyond comedy. Her career ended in 1921, but she occasionally turned up in bit parts, most notably in Fellini’s I Vitelloni (1953). Born in 1887, she made it close to her centenary when she died in 1986.

Little Mortiz demande Rosalie en marriage (1911)
series theme: "Mass Destruction"
Pathe. Dir: Romeo Bossetti. Cast: Maurice Schwartz, Sarah Duhamel. (6 min)

Wimpy Little Moritz needs to toughen up to win Rosalie, but ends up smashing everyone and everything in sight when boxing lessons turn him into a mindless fighting machine.

Romeo Bossetti was the renaissance man of the early Euro-comedies. Not only did he write and direct an amazing output of shorts for other people, but also had his own “Romeo” series for Pathe. He had come from the music hall and circus, as had his two stars for this series, Sarah Duhamel and Moritz Schwartz. The roly-poly Duhamel is a particularly overlooked comedienne who had been a child actress on stage from the age of three. Besides co-starring in this series she was frequently partnered with Casimir (Lucien Bataille), and starred in her own “Rosalie” comedies for Pathe, as well as “Petronille” for Éclair. Her career wound down in 1916, and her last appearance was in Les mysteres of Paris (1924).

Onesime contre Onesime (a.k.a. Simple Simon leads a double life) (1912)
series theme: "Tales of Madness"
Gaumont. Dir: Jean Durand. Cast: Ernest Bourbon, Edouard Grisollet, Gaston Modot. (9 min)

When Onesime “doubles” himself on screen, the battle between his good and evil selves begins.

Our second selection from the popular Onesime series has our hero shadowed by his evil double in a comic Student of Prague scenario. It’s easy to see why this series was the favorite of the Surrealists with its dream-like imagery of malevolent twins, animals in fancy drawing rooms, and the wild acceleration of time. The Onesime’s were really a combination of personality comedy and trick films, as our comic bumbler always found himself in impossible situations that were made possible by sleight of hand with the camera. The series ran from 1912 to 1914. Star Ernest Bourbon appeared in films until 1918, and later had a school for acrobats in Belleville.

La vengeance du sergent de ville (1913)
series theme: "Musical Comedy"
Gaumont. Dir & Sc: Louis Feuillade. Cast: Renee Carl, Suzanne Grandais, Louis Leubas, Yvette Andreyor, Andre Luguet, Paul Manson. (13 min)

A police sergeant’s late night horn playing dismays neighbors in his apartment house, leading to marital discord, hysteria and a bizarre form of psycho-therapy involving a body double.

Director and writer Louis Feuillade is best remembered today for his surrealism-laced serials such as Fantomas (1913) and Les Vampires (1915), but turned out all types of films in the twenty years he worked for the Gaumont Studio. When he started in 1905 it was solely as a writer, but was soon directing as well, and by 1907 was named artistic director of the company. His serials benefitted from the antic spirit of his early comedy shorts, and he worked non-stop in all genres right up to his death in 1925.

Class War: How the Other Half Lives

2010-10-04T12:36:00.004-04:00

"Class War: How the Other Half Lives"

(film notes written by Steve Massa)

Bunny Dips Into Society (a.k.a. Bunny and the Bunny Hug) (5/17/1913) Dir: Wilfred North. Prod: Vitagraph Co. One reel. Cast: John Bunny, Earle Williams, Leah Baird, Ned Finley, Leo Delany, Lillian Hayward.

According to legend, in 1910 a rotund stage actor presented himself at the Vitagraph studio in Brooklyn looking for work. In a career that had encompassed 22 years, John Bunny had appeared in minstrel shows, circuses, vaudeville and worked with legends like William Brady, Lew Fields and Raymond Hitchcock. Despite this long track record he had decided that movies were the coming thing and that “he would rather be behind the guns than in front of them.” Bunny, who looked like Shakespeare’s Falstaff and Sir Toby Belch come to life, made an immediate impression on moviegoers and became a favorite.

In 1911 he began working regularly with Flora Finch. The combination of the expansive Bunny with the severe Finch created an instant combative chemistry, and although their most popular films were made together it’s been said that they had an active dislike for each other. Playing a variety of “salt of the earth” characters such as flirty husbands, old bachelors, crusty sea captains, etc., Bunny was a film actor years ahead of his time who got many of his laughs from a subtle look, or when a conflict of emotions would play across his broad face.

Although physically filling the stereotype of the jolly fat man, it’s rumored that Bunny was bad-tempered and egotistical, and, due to his extreme weight, narcoleptic, even able to snooze away in a complete standing position. In 1914, despite declining health, the comedian began doing double duty in films and on stage. Overwork, combined with kidney disease, caused his death on May 1, 1915. Tributes from around the world eulogized Bunny, predicting that he and his films would always be cherished by future generations, but sadly within only a few years the memory of him dimmed and most of the films disappeared.

Luke’s Shattered Sleep (12/31/1916) Prod: Rolin. Dir: Hal Roach. Dist: Pathe. One reel. Cast: Harold Lloyd, Snub Pollard, Bebe Daniels, Charles Stevenson, Fred Newmeyer, Sammy Brooks, Bud Jamison, Earl Mohan, Noah Young, Harry Todd, Gus Leonard.

In the 1920s Harold Lloyd became one of the top box-office attractions, and with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton came to be regarded as one of the three greatest comedians of the silent era. But Lloyd’s early film apprenticeship lasted much longer than Chaplin or Keaton’s as he searched for the right comedic approach and film persona. Harold came to films with a theatrical background, but unlike his rivals it was strictly dramatic. He originally had no desire to be a comedian, but after breaking into pictures as an extra, and beginning a friendship with a fellow extra named Hal Roach, Harold was thrust into the position of comedian when Roach received an inheritance and set up his own production company. With his customary combination of enthusiasm and hard work, Harold began learning film comedy and in a few years became one of its most able practitioners.

His first character was a bum called Willie Work, who can be observed in one of his earliest surviving shorts JUST NUTS (’15 – in MoMA’s collection). Soon Willie was re-worked and renamed Lonesome Luke, but both were heavily influenced by Charlie Chaplin. As Lonesome Luke Harold had a cat-like moustache, wore too-tight fitting clothes, and slapping and kicking was his main activity. Despite this Luke did become popular, giving Lloyd and Roach a toe-hold in the industry, but when the series graduated to two-reels Pathe and Roach were happy – but Harold was not. Feeling that Luke couldn’t develop any further Lloyd talked Roach into letting him try a new character – a sort of boy next door with glasses. At first this new persona was just Luke with glasses – the same roughhouse – but soon the gags softened and became tailored to this peppy idealist. Harold was soon on his way, and subsequent features like GRANDMA’S BOY (’22) and SAFETY LAST (’23) made him one of the biggest stars of the silent era.

Another important ingredient in Lloyd’s success was the talented supporting comics that Roach surrounded him with. Yeoman service was done by Snub Pollard and Bebe Daniels as his co-stars. A graduate of Pollard’s Lilliputians, Snub could be Harold’s ally or rival, and would often carry a sizeable chunk of a film while Harold was offscreen. Bebe was not a shrinking and demure leading lady, but a feisty tomboy who gave back as good as she got. The rest of the cast was made up of the Hal Roach stock company of players which included Charles Stevenson, Earl Mohan, Dorothea Wolbert, Gus Leonard, Bud Jamison, Bill Blaisdel, Noah Young, Margaret Joslin, Harry Todd, and Sammy Brooks, who all appeared in almost every short (sometimes in more than one role) and could be relied upon to get the most out of their screen time. As the years went by Roach continued to develop this group and it would later include the likes of George Rowe, William Gillespie, Mark Jones, Martha Sleeper, Tiny Sanford, Charlie Hall, and James Finlayson.

Time Flies (2/7/1926) Prod: Jack White. Dir: Jess Robbins. Dist: Educational Pictures. Two reels. Cast: Lupino Lane, Gwen Lee, Otto Fries, Virginia Vance, Wallace Lupino, Bert Young.

Along with Buster Keaton and Douglas Fairbanks, Lupino Lane was one of the greatest acrobats of the screen. Born a member of the Lupino family – a famous theatrical clan that started its reign in the 1600s – he was raised in English pantomime and variety with a thorough training in tumbling, juggling, mime, and even shooting through “star traps” (trap doors in the stage floor that were connected to catapults that would allow a performer to suddenly pop into a scene). Known as “Little Nipper” as a child, he began working in British films as early as 1913 and when he hit international fame with the show AFGAR the tour brought him to America in the early 20s. After appearing in the Ziegfeld Follies and other Broadway shows he made his first venture to Hollywood to make a few shorts for Fox such as THE PIRATE (’22) and the feature A FRIENDLY HUSBAND (’23 – both in MoMA’s collection).

Following a return to England he began a series of comedies produced by Jack White and distributed by Educational Pictures. With the screen persona of a befuddled innocent who stumbles his way to success, Lane used all the physical tricks that he had learned on stage. The films are marvels of comic action, with Lane as the diminutive dervish that sets all the other elements spinning. Many of his shorts, like SWORD POINTS and PIRATES BEWARE (both ’28), were spoofs of Doug Fairbanks pictures, and he also used westerns, historical epics, and mountie melodramas for material. Early in the series the shorts were piloted by top-notch comedy directors like Jess Robbins, Norman Taurog, William Goodrich (a.k.a. Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle), and Mark Sandrich, but in 1928 Lane took over the reins himself under the name Henry W. George. Lane made a smooth transition to sound, continuing his shorts into 1929, and appearing in prestigious features like Ernst Lubitish’s THE LOVE PARADE (’29). Despite all the success in Hollywood the family was homesick and returned to England in 1930. There Lane continued making films and had his greatest stage triumph in the late 1930s in the original production of ME AND MY GIRL.

TIME FLIES was directed by Jess Robbins, an overlooked pioneer who started his career as a cameraman at Essanay in 1908. He went out west with G.M. Anderson and eventually the division settled in Niles, CA. where Robbins became the general manager in 1913. After supervising Charlie Chaplin’s unit for Essanany, the studio soon closed and he went to Fort Lee to set up space for Anderson to make features. Moving out on his own he directed at L-Ko, and from 1920 to 1921 helmed Jimmy Aubrey’s two-reelers for Vitagraph. During that time Oliver Hardy was Aubrey’s support and when Robbins hooked up again with G.M. Anderson to direct the Stan Laurel “try-out” short THE LUCKY DOG (’21), it was Robbins that brought Hardy into the project. The 1920s saw Robbins involved in features such as A FRONT PAGE STORY (’22) and THE BUSINESS OF LOVE (’25), both with Edward Everett Horton, plus writing and directing shorts for Billy West, Jack White and Fox. After directing his final feature, the British made SKIRTS (’28) with Syd Chaplin, Robbins brought his career full-circle by having his last film be the Weiss Brothers short TAKING THE COUNT (’29) starring Ben Turpin, one of the people he had started with at Essanay in 1908. Running a taxi service, operating a machine screw factory, and being a machinist at a water purifying equipment company kept Robbins busy post movie career until his death in 1973.

Sweetie (4/25/1923) Century Comedy. Prod: Abe & Julius Stern. Dir: Alf Goulding. Two reels. Cast: Baby Peggy, Jerry Mandy, Louise Lorraine, Max Asher, James T. Kelly, William Irving.

Diana Serra Cary, better known as Baby Peggy, made her film debut at age nineteen months in 1920. Discovered by director Fred Fishback (a.k.a. Fred Hibbard), she started in Universal’s Century Comedies as support to Brownie the wonder dog, worked with Teddy and Lee Moran, and soon became the star of her own series. Tiny and cute, but in a character sort of way with her pug nose, big eyes, and bowl hair cut, Peggy became a miniature working girl in shorts like THE KID REPORTER (’23) or spoofed rival movie stars in PEG O’ THE MOVIES and CARMEN JR. (both ’23). She also headlined a series of loose fairy tale adaptations, HANSEL AND GRETEL (’23) and JACK AND THE BEANSTALK (’24), and moved into features such as THE DARLING OF NEW YORK (’23) and CAPTAIN JANUARY (’24). Her immense popularity led to all kinds of Baby Peggy merchandise – dolls, cut-outs, books, etc. – but by age 6 she found she was getting over the hill. Her Hollywood fame secured her appearances in vaudeville, but she was never able to get a foothold in pictures again. Many years later she re-emerged as a talented writer who has chronicled her life, and the experiences of other child performers in early Hollywood. Today, over 90 years old, she remains a feisty presence preserving film history and presiding over screenings of her films.

Century Comedies was founded and run by Abe and Julius Stern, brothers-in-law of Universal’s Carl Laemmle, and in the 1920s they had the market cornered on child and animal stars (no doubt due to the lower salaries involved). Peggy’s expert support in SWEETIE is the trio of James T. Kelly, Max Asher and William Irving, all of whom were comedy regulars and frequently on hand in her shorts. A long-time stage performer and vaudevillian James T. Kelly is best remembered today for the decrepit old men he played in Charlie Chaplin’s Mutual comedies, but he spent many years in shorts and features working with Harold Lloyd, Al St John, Billie Ritchie, Lloyd Hamilton, Hank Mann, and Snub Pollard until the late 1920s. Max Asher was a former vaudeville magician and “Dutch” comic who became the star of Universal’s Joker Comedies in 1913, eventually becoming a supporting character comic in all kinds of shorts and features. After the arrival of sound he was a studio make-up man and operated a popular magic shop in Ocean Park, CA. William Irving, a veteran of vaudeville and comic opera, specialized in comic villainy. He began his film career at L-Ko and worked in numerous shorts plus occasional features like TWIN BEDS (’20) with Mr. & Mrs. Carter De Haven before becoming an Al Christie regular in 1923, where he was the studio’s resident rival for the leading lady. In the sound era almost all of his appearances are uncredited, but he had a memorable encounter with Our Gang in MIKE FRIGHT (’34) and contributed comic bits in shorts and features up to his death in 1943.

Alf Goulding, was a long-time comedy pro who directed a dozen of Baby Peggy’s shorts. One of the many graduates of the Pollard’s Lilliputians theatrical troupe, he began his film career as a director and gagman for Hal Roach in 1917. After working on numerous Harold Lloyd and Snub Pollard shorts he switched to Century comedies with Brownie the wonder dog and Baby Peggy. The latter 1920s found him making a few on screen appearances in films such as THE LADY (’25) with Norma Talmadge, and directing many of the “Smith Family” comedies at the Sennett studio. In the early sound era he worked for RKO, Vitaphone, and Universal, then with the exception of L& H’s A CHUMP AT OXFORD (’40) spent the much of the final leg of his career in England on films like DICK BARTON:SPECIAL AGENT (’48). His career wound down after his Musty Suffer feature LAFFING TIME (’59), and he passed away back in Hollywood in 1972.

The Vagrant (9/25/1921) A Mermaid Comedy. Prod: Jack White. Dir: Hugh Fay. Dist: Educational Pictures. Two reels. Cast: Lloyd Hamilton, Irene Dalton, Tom Wilson, Lige Conley, Frank J. Coleman, Hugh Fay.

Lloyd Hamilton was one of the most original comedians of the 1920s. Largely unknown today to the fans of the “Crowned Heads of Comedy” (Keaton, Chaplin, etc.) due to the loss of most of his prime films, he frequently becomes a favorite of viewers lucky enough to catch him in action. Best described as an over-grown mama’s boy, he was prissy and courtly in a flat checkered cap, with a swishy, duck-waddle walk that became his trademark. Starting in pictures in 1913, his early work encompassed playing the Ford Sterling-ish “Pretzel” for Frontier Films, then he was teamed with little Bud Duncan for Kalem’s “Ham and Bud”comedies (Ham was the big skuzzy bum and Duncan the little skuzzy bum). The H & B shorts were primitive and cut-throat knockabout, but Hamilton refined his screen persona during a stint with Fox Sunshine Comedies where he connected with young director Jack White. In 1920 they launched their own series through Educational Pictures, which made Ham one of the top comics in short comedies.

The omnipresent cop who shadows Hamilton through the entire film is played by Tom Wilson, best remembered today for his work (also as a cop) in Charlie Chaplin’s First National comedies such as A DOG’S LIFE (’18) and THE KID (’21). Wilson came from the stage, where he had specialized in blackface roles, and began his film career as part of D.W. Griffith’s company at Reliance/Majestic and Fine Arts, appearing in THE BIRTH OF A NATION (’15) and INTOLERANCE (’16), plus shorts and other features supervised by “the master.” During this time he also appeared in a number of Doug Fairbanks early pictures, which may have led to him becoming part of Chaplin’s regular stock company in 1918. The 1920s saw him in numerous features and shorts – in blackface and out. Features include Hamilton’s HIS DARKER SELF (’24), BATTLING BUTLER (’26) with Buster Keaton, not to mention co-starring with Heinie Conklin and Cameo the dog in the blackface WWI comedy HAM AND EGGS AT THE FRONT (’27). After sound arrived he had a few prominent roles, but was soon relegated to small character bits, which he continued until 1963. Irene Dalton is the damsel in distress for whom Ham finds a novel use for a hammer to help sell corn plasters. An attractive comedy leading lady in the early 1920s, Dalton appeared in many Christie shorts and even a couple of features. In addition to working with Hamilton in six two-reelers she later became his second wife (for just a few months in 1927 to 1928). Her last film was in 1923, and she died young at age 33, passing away in 1934 just a year before Hamilton.

Director Hugh Fay is chiefly remembered today for an interview director Eddie Sutherland gave in the 1950s where he identified Fay as the Keystone drug dealer, claiming that he started Mabel Normand and others on the road to ruin. Since then no evidence has turned up to either prove or disprove the charge, but it has effectively overshadowed any interest in his work as a comedy performer and writer/director. Named for his father Hugh Fay Sr., who was part of the popular Irish comedy team Barry & Fay, Hugh was born into show business as was his sister Elfie Fay, who in the early part of the 20th Century was one of the rivals of Marie Dressler and Josie Sadler for the title of funniest woman on the New York stage. Young Hugh had his own career on stage and in vaudeville before joining Keystone in 1915 where he turns up in shorts such as A HASH HOUSE FRAUD (’15) and BATH TUB PERILS (’16). From Sennett he moved on to headline in Fox Sunshine Comedies and Hall Room Boys Comedies, but in the early 1920s he focused on directing. In addition to piloting a number of the Hamilton comedies, he worked for Bull Montana, Snub Pollard (including the famous IT’S A GIFT in 1924), Weiss Brothers and Jack White comedies, plus made late onscreen appearances as villainous characters in the features LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY (’25) and SPUDS (’27). Fay was very busy when he died in December of 1926 from stomach problems, with a number of his films released after his death.

Unsocialized Medicine: Health Care Comedies

2010-10-04T12:35:00.002-04:00

"Unsocialized Medicine: Health Care Comedies"

(film notes written by Steve Massa)

Bunny Backslides (10/30/1914) Dir: George D. Baker. Prod: Vitagraph Film Co. One reel. Cast: John Bunny, Flora Finch, Josie Sadler, Charles Eldridge.

In addition to the rotund John Bunny (see BUNNY DIPS INTO SOCIETY), BUNNY BACKSLIDES features two excellent and overlooked character comediennes – Flora Finch and Josie Sadler. Skinny Finch, one of the earliest comedy stars in American films, specialized in spinsters and domineering wives, particularly when working with her frequent co-star Bunny. Born in Surrey, she began her career on stage in England with Ben Greet. After coming to the U.S. she began appearing in films while trying to establish herself on the American stage. Starting at Biograph in 1908 she caught the attention of D.W. Griffith, and made an impression in the “Jones Family” shorts and other comedies like ALL ON ACCOUNT OF THE MILK (’10). That year she moved pver to Vitagraph and was soon teamed with Bunny. The thin Finch and corpulent Bunny made a perfect physical contrast, and were audience favorites until Bunny’s death in 1915. Sadly the peak of Flora’s career was her years with Bunny, afterward she was never able to recapture the same popularity. Leaving Vitagraph in 1916, the next year she set up the Flora Finch Film Corporation and turned out a series of two-reelers that were cooly received by audiences and exhibitors. She returned to the supporting ranks and kept very busy, turning up in a few Johnny Hines films like THE EARLY BIRD (’25) and in high profile features such as QUALITY STREET and THE CAT AND THE CANARY (both ’27). Flora was also regular support in “Carrie of the Chorus,” a series of live-action shorts made by Max and Dave Fleischer. By the time that sound arrived, outside of an occasional character bit in an independent feature like THE SCARLET LETTER (’34) or her funny cameo in the opening of Laurel & Hardy’s WAY OUT WEST (’37), she was mostly confined to anonymous extra work.

Josie Sadler, who was as round as Finch was angular, was one of the best-loved stage comediennes at the beginning of the 20th Century. Small and rotund, she began her career at age 9 after being discovered by impresario Tony Pastor, and became famous for playing naïve immigrant girls in shows like PRINCE PRO TEM (1899), THE SILVER SLIPPER (’02) and her biggest success PEGGY FROM PARIS (’03). Running the gamut from Dutch, Cockney, French, Swedish and German, Sadler wrote many of her own musical specialty numbers, a few of which she recorded for Victor. Joining the Vitagraph ensemble in 1913, Sadler at first turned up in support of Bunny, Sidney Drew and Norma Talmadge. Soon the studio began tailoring films to her stage fame – THE COMING OF GRETCHEN (’13) and THE MAID FROM SWEDEN (’14) were about the misadventures of immigrant women, and then launched in her own series of “Josie” comedies. 5 episodes about a German household drudge were made, after which she did BUNNY BACKSLIDES as her last film for Vitagraph. Slowing down the pace of her work she made only occasional stage appearances and only two more pictures. In 1920 she completely retired from show business to run the electrical business of her late husband, and died in 1927. Today she’s part of the huge list of neglected comediennes, and although her film career was brief her immigrant servant girl persona was a forerunner for ladies like Louise Fazenda, Jane Bernoudy, and Alice Howell who would soon follow.

A Professional Patient (1/19/1917) Dir: Sidney Drew. Prod: Vitagraph Company. 1 reel. Cast: Sidney Drew, Lucille McVey (Mrs. Sidney Drew), Donald McBride, Bobby Connolly.

In the ‘teens an alternate to the rough and ready slapstick shorts were the witty and sophisticated comedies of Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew. For a few years the Vitagraph studio was the bastion for this type of picture, with not only the Drews but also Wally Van’s “Cutey” series, Lillian Walker’s “Dimples” shorts, and most famously the Bunny-Finches. By early 1917 the tide had turned when all of the above players moved on, and Vitagraph comedies were taken over by Larry Semon.

Sidney Drew was a light comedian from the stage who entered films in 1911 and embraced the medium much more than the rest of his illustrious theatrical family (Lionel, John and Ethel Barrymore) to become an innovative writer and director. His early films were for Kalem, then he joined Vitagraph in 1913 with his first wife Gladys Rankin (who wrote under the name of George Cameron). Mrs. Drew died soon after and Sidney married Lucille McVey, a young actress who had recently joined Vitagraph after six years of presenting recitations on the concert stage, and was working under the name Jane Morrow.

In 1914 they launched their series which chronicled the misadventures of an average married couple that became known as “Henry and Polly.” The Drews worked together on the scripts and direction, while Sidney’s dry and expert performances put them over on the screen. Becoming immensely popular the pair left Vitagraph and continued the series for Metro. At ten minutes their shorts revolved around a simple situation or misunderstanding taken to the Nth degree, as in this entry where Sidney loses his job and ends up being a living advertisement for a painless dentist.

Later the Drews moved to the V.B.K. Film Corp. with distribution through Paramount, and appeared together on the stage. Sidney Drew’s health rapidly declined after the death of his son (director S. Rankin Drew) in World War I, and he died at the peak of his fame in 1919. After his death Mrs. Drew continued on – fulfilling their V.B.K. contract with shorts like BUNKERED (’19), later moving to Pathe for a few that she wrote, directed and starred in. She also directed the Vitagraph feature COUSIN KATE (’21) before her own premature death in 1925.

The Snow Cure (4/23/1916) Keystone Comedy. Dir: Arvid E. Gilstrom. Prod: Mack Sennett. Dist: Mutual. Two reels. Cast: Ford Sterling, Fritz Schade, Marie Manly, Alice Davenport, James Donnelly, Slim Summerville, Frank “Fatty” Alexander, Lee Morris, Otto Fries, Bert Gillespie, Harold “Josh” Binney, Coy Watson Sr., Clarence Lyndon, Bruno the bear.

THE SNOW CURE is a wild and wacky Mack Sennett farce that dumps large helpings of snow, fat men in bathing suits, a jealous husband, telegraph poles, and a long-suffering bear into its artistic blender and turns it on puree. The nominal star is Ford Sterling (see HEARTS AND FLOWERS), but most of the heavy comedic lifting is done by Fritz Schade and Bruno the bear. Schade, the human half of the duo, is a forgotten roly-poly comic who did yeoman work at Keystone from 1913 to 1917. Born in Germany, where he had extensive stage experience before coming to American to work for the Olympia Opera Company, he made his film debut at Universal before taking up residence at Sennett. He appeared frequently with Chaplin in 1914, but the next year was the headliner in a series of one-reelers where he was often paired with a young Charles Parrott (a.k.a. Charley Chase). Schade took a lot of physical abuse in the name of comedy, and usually played excitable characters named Fritz, or something more exotic like Baron von Hassenfeffer. After his stint with Sennett he moved on to Triangle Komedies, and finished his film career at Fox Sunshine Comedies in 1918. Illness forced him to retire and he died following brain surgery in 1926. Bruno the bear was one of the many animals who appeared at the studio, some like Teddy the great dane and Pepper the cat were regular studio stars. Bruno was a silent comedy veteran, turning up in other films such as Gale Henry’s HER WEEK-END (’19), and is responsible for a lot of the laughs in this picture.

The afore-mentioned fat guys in bathing suits are Frank “Fatty” Alexander, Bert Gillesppie, Josh Binney, and Otto Fries. Frank Alexander was probably the heaviest “heavy” in silent comedy, and although today best remembered for his supporting Larry Semon and being the ringleader in the Ton of Fun comedies, he also carried weight in shorts for Sennett, L-Ko, Century, Fox, plus plenty of features. The large person who spends much of his screen time floating on his back in the spa’s swimming pool is Bert Gillespie, a cannonball shaped actor who was only 5’3’’ but weighed 355 pounds. He appeared in comedies for Sennett, Fox, and Henry Lehrman Specials but died in 1922 at age 33. Harold “Josh” Binney worked for Biograph, Imp, Vogue, and Sennett before setting up his own production company to make “Josh Binney Comedies” that starred another hefty comic, Hilliard “Fatt” Karr, as “Funny Fatty Filbert.” Perhaps the slimmest of this herd is Otto Fries – he may just qualify as husky – who was a silent and sound comedy veteran for many years (see WHAT A NIGHT). Also on hand are bean pole Slim Summerville (see ASCHOOLHOUSE SCANDAL), plus character players James Donnelly and Alice Davenport.

Arvid E. Gillstrom is the director and skilled traffic cop of this production. Born in Sweden, he came to the United States as an infant and was a mining engineer, prospector, and ball player before entering films as a stunt man. After working his way up to an assistant director at Kalem, he became a full-fledged director at Sterling Comedies and moved over to Keystone in 1915. THE SNOW CURE was his first solo directorial credit at the studio, but after being one of the many uncredited contributors to the Mabel Normand feature MICKEY (’18) he became director general for Chaplin imitator Billy West’s King Bee Comedies. From this point he traveled all over the silent comedy map – helming the moppets Jane and Katherine Lee for Fox, Muriel Ostriche’s series for Arrow, Century Comedies, Jack White Comedies, FBO, Weiss Brothers, and finished the silent era at Christie Comedies. Only occasionally piloting features like CLANCEY’S KOSHER WEDDING (’27), his sound films included shorts for Educational and Paramount starring names such as Harry Langdon and Bing Crosby. He died young at age 43 in 1935.

Naughty Nurses (3/1920) Arrow-Hank Mann Super Comedy. Prod: Morris R. Schlank. Dir: ?. Dist: Arrow. Two reels. Cast: Hank Mann, Vernon Dent, Madge Kirby.

In the silent era the American film industry was still in its formative stages, with the studios not really taking over and making everything regimented until the end of the 1920s. There were numerous independent producers who relied on distribution organizations to get their productions to the public. The Arrow Film Corporation was one of the larger of these outfits and handled all kinds of films – shorts, serials, and features – of all genres – comedy, westerns, melodramas, sports pictorials, etc. Arrow was formed in 1915 by W.E. Shallenberger as a production unit, but soon switched to brokering other producer’s productions. By the early 1920s it was one of the largest independent distributors around, and its comedy shorts included the work of Eddie Lyons, Bobby Dunn, Muriel Ostrich, and Billy West, not to mention Reggie Morris’ Special Comedies, the Cruelyweds series, and Fred Ardath’s XLNT Comedies. Arrow ceased to be in 1924 when the vice-president, W. Ray Johnston, formed Rayart Productions, which produced their own low-budget films while distributing outside product. Rayart had comedy shorts that starred Bobby Ray and Al Alt, plus four comedy features that included THRILLING YOUTH (’26) and LUCKY FOOL (’27 – both in MoMA’s collection) that starred and were produced by former Chaplin imitator Billy West. Rayart was re-organized as Monogram Pictures in 1930, which became beloved for its B films with the likes of Bela Lugosi and the Bowery Boys.

Hank Mann cranked out a record number of these shorts in a three year period (see THE GUM RIOT), and the man with the money was producer Morris Schlank. In addition to Hank’s series Schlank also produced Broadway Comedies with Eddie Barry and Vera Reynolds, Spotlight Comedies with Billy Fletcher (a.k.a. Bletcher) and Violet Joy, western features with Al Hoxie and Jack Perrin, plus action thrillers directed by J.P. McGowan. Schlank later moved his product to Rayart, and kept producing right up to his death in 1932.

Hank’s leading lady in this Arrow series, and the main naughty nurse of the title, is British born Madge Kirby. Coming to the U.S. at age nine, she went on the stage at 14 appearing with Richard Carle and Lew Fields, in addition to performing in vaudeville with Fred Walton. She began her film career in 1912 with the Biograph Company. During her four years there she played the dark-haired ingénue in shorts such as THE BOOB AND THE MAGICIAN (’14), and when she left them she became one of the most prolific comedy leading ladies of the ‘teens. In 1916 she joined Rube Miller and Arthur Tavares in the ensemble at Vogue Comedies, and passed through Imp, Victor, American, Fox, and LaSalle Comedies before landing at Vitagraph with Larry Semon. On the way to hooking up with Larry she’d begun wearing a blonde wig, and is always the heroine in distress in shorts like BATHING BEAUTIES AND BIG BOOBS (’18), and TRAPS AND TANGLES (’19). Never having the opportunity to be funny on her own, she embodied the part of the heroine in peril, and fulfilled much the same function when she joined Hank’s ensemble in 1919. As the girl the bashful Hank flirts with from afar as in THE BILL POSTER (’20), or as usual needing rescue in A HAREM HERO (’19) and MYSTIC MUSH (’20), Kirby is warm and plucky and seems like she should have moved on to greater use in the 1920s, but she drops off the film map at the end of this series. Hopefully she was one of the many movie ingénues to marry millionaires and happily retire from the screen.

Good Night Nurse (4/28/1929) Lupino Lane Comedies. Prod: Jack White. Dir: Henry W. George (Lupino Lane). Dist: Educational Pictures. Cast: Lupino Lane, Wallace Lupino, Fay Holderness, Muriel Evans, Eleanor Fredericks.

This is the next to last silent short from Lupino Lane (see TIME FLIES), who’d already released SHIP MATES (’29), his first sound comedy. Lane didn’t really change his style all that much to adapt to the new technology, which gave him the opportunity to show off his singing and dancing skills as well. After returning to England in 1930 one of his first films there was NO LADY (‘31) which contains several silent comedy set pieces from his Educational shorts re-worked for sound. All of his later films left plenty of room for physical business.

An important ingredient in Lane’s films was his younger brother Wallace Lupino, who had the same upbringing and training in the English theatre. The brothers had worked together on stage and in early British films, so when Lane embarked on his series for Jack White Comedies Wallace was tapped as his main support – playing villains, rivals, or buddies. Where Lupino Lane was pure clown, Wallace was a versatile comic character actor, and among his many roles were a Moroccan sheik, a fiery gaucho, and, in LISTEN SISTER (’28), even a boarding school head mistress. Besides supporting his brother and other comics on the lot, White starred Wallace in some of his own one and two-reel comedies such as HARD WORK and THE LOST LAUGH (both ‘28), which garnered good reviews and praise for Wallace. The shorts successfully continued through 1929 and the coming of sound, but in 1930 the family returned to England. The pair continued to work together on stage and in films, and Wallace also appeared with cousin Barry Lupino, in addition to turning excellent character performances in THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES (’37) and WATERLOO ROAD (’45). He later teamed with his nephew Laurie Lupino Lane in a club act, but after finding that the onset of arthritis made physical knockabout too painful, he retired.

GOOD NIGHT NURSE is almost totally a tit-for-tat routine between the brothers Lupino – the kind of thing they’d been doing together their whole lives. Although the pair are really the whole show, there are a couple of regular comedy players who turn up as nurses. Appearing fleetingly as the doctors’ office nurse is Muriel Evans, who would become one of Charley Chase’s favorite leading ladies in shorts such as OLD IRONSIDES (’32) and HIS SILENT RACKET (’33). After working with Charley she moved to bits in features like QUEEN CHRISTINA (’33) and HOLLYWOOD PARTY (’34) before finally becoming a western sweetheart for Buck Jones, William Boyd, and Tex Ritter in low-budget oaters until she retired in 1940.

The large nurse at the sanitarium that tries to dispense the hot mustard plaster is Fay Holderness, a somewhat smaller version of Blanche Payson with dark circles under her eyes, who specialized in hen-pecking wives and bossy matrons. Born in 1888, little is known about her pre-film life, but she started working in 1914 although not making an impression until she played the Innkeeper in D.W. Griffith’s HEARTS OF THE WORLD (’18). At the same time she can be spied as a dance hall girl in Chaplin’s A DOG’S LIFE (’18), as well as being a stock player in Billy West’s later King Bee comedies. Although she worked everywhere – L-Ko, Fox, Christie, and Jack White – she’s probably most familiar for her roles at the Hal Roach studio in support of Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang, Max Davidson, Clyde Cook, and others. Her feature appearances include THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (’24 – MoMA’s collection) and LONESOME (’28), and she remained busy in sound films until the early 1950s.

(film notes copyright © 2010 by Steve Massa, all rights reserved)

Altered States: Under the Influence

2010-10-04T12:32:00.004-04:00

"Altered States: Under the Influence"

(film notes written by Steve Massa)

Mabel’s Married Life (6/20/1914) Prod: Keystone. Dir: Mack Sennett. Dist: Mutual. One reel. Cast: Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, Mack Swain, Eva Nelson, Charlie Murray, Harry McCoy, Hank Mann, Frank Opperman, Alice Davenport, Dixie Chene, Alice Howell, Grover Ligon, Wallace MacDonald.

Doing a drunk act was a specialty for Charlie Chaplin, as he made his name on the stage playing the “inebriated swell” in the popular Fred Karno sketch MUMMING BIRDS (re-titled A NIGHT IN AN ENGLISH MUSIC HALL in America). This led to his hiring by Mack Sennett, and at Keystone Chaplin captured his drunk routine on film a number of times in shorts such as THE ROUNDERS, HIS FAVORITE PASTIME, and this one. Even if Charlie isn’t out and out plotzed in a Keystone he’s usually had a few drinks or doing his best to obtain some. The world of Sennett’s Keystone films was filled with eccentric and lower class characters that were very similar to the denizens of Karno’s stage universe. So after a brief transition it didn’t take long for Chaplin to get his footing and become the most famous man in motion pictures. It is ironic that so much of Chaplin’s early career revolved around his inebriation portrayal since Charlie never really drank, and his father had been a terrible alcoholic and died due to drink at a very early age.

Of course the Mabel of the title is Mabel Normand, preeminent star of the Sennett lot, often billed as “the sugar on the Keystone grapefruit.” In American silent comedy Mabel is really the acorn from which all the other star comediennes grew as she was both leading lady and clown. She also has the distinction of being the first slapstick shorts star to be moved into features, as she predates Roscoe Arbuckle’s jump by two years. Most of the silent comics came from the stage, but Mabel was a teenage model for photographers and artists such as James Montgomery Flagg. Being in New York the fledgling movie industry was all around her, and by 1911 she was appearing in Vitagraph comedies and D.W. Griffith dramas for Biograph. Although she had no formal experience as an actress she was spontaneous and spunky, and the camera loved her. A professional and personal relationship with Sennett led to her becoming his leading lady – first at Biograph and then at his own Keystone studio.

The often slapdash and usually rowdy early Keystones rarely stopped to give her an opportunity to do more than perform slapstick roughhouse and react to the gyrations of Sennett, Ford Sterling, and Fred Mace. But soon she began directing many of her own shorts (one of only a handful of women to do so), and when she worked with Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle the breakneck pace was slowed and there was more concentration on characterization, particularly in the popular “Fatty and Mabel” series which combined physical slapstick with situational and domestic comedy. As mentioned earlier Mabel moved into features in 1918 with a slew of films for Samuel Goldwyn and the Sennett-produced MICKEY. Sadly bad luck and health plagued the latter part of her career, and today she’s often better remembered for her early death and the scandals she was linked to than for the almost twenty years she spent entertaining audiences. The good news is that over the past few years a number of her lost films, including three features, have resurfaced, so there’s now a greater opportunity for viewers to rediscover and re-examine her place in silent comedy history.

In addition to Keystone regulars like Hank Mann, Alice Davenport, Charlie Murray, Harry McCoy, and Frank Opperman, Charlie’s antagonist is the great Mack Swain, who was always in a class by himself. After a background in vaudeville and musical theatre, Swain started his career at Keystone in 1913. Working frequently with Chaplin and Chester Conklin, he became very popular with his character of Ambrose, a put upon everyman with dark-circled eyes, a brush moustache, and a peak of hair gathered on his forehead. Leaving Sennett in 1917 Mack continued Ambrose for L-Ko, Fox Sunshine, and the independent Poppy Comedies. His career stalled in the early 1920s when he was blacklisted by an influential producer, but his old screen mate Chaplin came to the rescue and made Mack part of his stock company in films such as THE IDLE CLASS (’21) and THE PILGRIM (’23). After his hilarious performance in THE GOLD RUSH (’25) Mack was back in demand and rode the wave of a comeback as support in features such as HANDS UP! (’26), MOCKERY (’27) and GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (’28), and would continue playing major parts into the early sound era. For many years the actress playing the role of Mack’s wife was misidentified as Alice Howell (who does turn up later as an inhabitant of the boarding house), but it’s actually forgotten comedienne Eva Nelson. Little is known about Nelson but she began regular appearances at Keystone in 1914, and soon left to become a featured performer in Henry “Pathe” Lehrman’s L-Ko Comedies, where she was frequently cast as Billie Ritchie’s battling and long-suffering wife in shorts like LIVE WIRES AND LOVE SPARKS (’16). She later appeared in Lehrman’s Fox Sunshine Comedies, and then disappeared from the screen.

Mystery of the Leaping Fish (6/11/1915) Prod: Fine Arts. Dir: Christy Cabanne & John Emerson. Dist: Triangle. Three reels. Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Bessie Love, A.D. Sears, Alma Rubens, Joe Murphy, Tom Wilson, Charlie Stevens, George Hall.

Since Douglas Fairbanks is remembered as the great optimist and swashbuckler of the silent screen, not to mention having been the king of Hollywood with his wife Mary Pickford as his queen, it’s a pleasant shock to see him play the strung-out Coke Ennyday in this spoof of Sherlock Holmes-style detectives. Fairbanks began his career on the stage where he spent a number of years as one of Broadway’s best light leading men. In 1915 the Triangle Film Corporation brought well-known stage stars like Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, DeWolf Hopper, William Collier, and Fairbanks to Hollywood to give class to the movies. At first Doug’s larger-than-life personality took everyone aback (particularly D.W. Griffith), but soon he found he was able to express himself physically on film in ways that he never could on the stage, and he was an immediate hit with audiences. THE MYSTERY OF THE LEAPING FISH is his 8th film, and definitely an oddity in his total output. It was made as the special opener to kick off a series of shorts for D.W. Griffith’s Fine Arts Studio, which continued with two-reelers starring Fay Tincher. LEAPING FISH is a completely bizarre spoof of detectives, drug use, and yellow peril films, all put together with a George Melies elan.

In 1917 Fairbanks set up his own production company with distribution through Paramount Pictures, and alternated smart, satirical comedies (often written and directed by the husband and wife team of John Emerson and Anita Loos) with light-hearted action vehicles. Seeking greater control, he co-founded United Artists in 1919 with Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith to produce and distribute their films. In the 1920s Fairbanks switched from out and out comedies to swashbucklers such as THE MARK OF ZORRO (’20), ROBIN HOOD (’24), THE BLACK PIRATE (’26) and THE IRON MASK (’29). Sound film effected Fairbanks very much as it did Buster Keaton – they seemed boxed in, unable to give the incredible physical performances that were the whole point of their silent films. Suddenly the quicksilver Fairbanks seemed middle-aged and listless. He continued making films for a while but eventually grew disinterested. His rousing adventures ended quietly at age 56 in 1939.

Comedy players Tom Wilson (see THE VAGRANT) and Joe Murphy turn up in small roles. The tall and chinless Murphy was an ex-vaudevillian who had performed a “Mutt and Jeff” act on stage with diminutive Bobby Vernon, and when Vernon got settled in films he got bits for his ex-partner. After playing roles at practically every shorts unit in Hollywood – L-Ko, Keystone, Triangle, Fox Sunshine, National, Reelcraft, and Educational, where his extreme height and goofy looks always made him stand out, Murphy achieved stardom in 1924 when he was cast as Andy Gump in Universal’s live-action version of The Gumps. His reign was brief, as at the end of the series he went back to the supporting ranks, but he continued to pop up in sound shorts, most notably with the Three Stooges in YOU NATZY SPY (’40). The script for this short was written by Tod Browning, famous today for FREAKS (’32) and silent thrillers with Lon Chaney. After a background in carnivals and circuses, Browning became an actor in the Komic Komedies that D. W. Griffith supervised for the Reliance/Majestic studio, and it wasn’t long before Browning began writing and directing his own pictures, in addition to being one of the many assistants on INTOLERANCE (’16). “Cruel and Unusual” would be an apt description of Browning’s cinematic world, and you can certainly see the future creator of THE UNHOLY THREE (’25) and THE DEVIL-DOLL (’36) in this script.

MYSTERY has two directors – W. Christy Cabanne and John Emerson – both important players in the beginning of Fairbanks’ film career. Christy Cabanne’s early days were spent in the U.S. Navy, after which he went on the stage, and in 1910 joined D. W. Griffith’s unit at the Biograph studio. Soon becoming one of the masters apprentices, writing and directing under his supervision, he eventually assisted on the mega productions THE BIRTH OF A NATION (’15) and INTOLERANCE (’16). Cabanne remained connected to Griffith when he set up his Fine Arts Studio, and became its Chief of Staff while directing all types of films – westerns, melodramas, and some of Fairbanks’ first features. After this early promise with Griffith the rest of Cabanne’s career was prolific but lackluster. One item of interest is that he shot the Technicolor nativity scene for BEN HUR (’25), but outside of GRAFT (’31) and THE MUMMY’S HAND (’40) he essentially made potboilers until 1948. Co-director John Emerson was a Broadway actor who, like Fairbanks, had been one of the theatre names acquired by Triangle. Although he had been hired to direct and act in dramas, Emerson ended up having more success with comedies, particularly after he teamed up with the young screenwriter Anita Loos. Their first picture together was Fairbanks’ HIS PICTURE IN THE PAPERS (’16) and more hits followed with THE MATRIMANIAC and THE AMERICANO (both ’16). In 1917 the pair moved with Doug over to Paramount for more films, and the next year Paramount gave them their own production unit where they wrote comedies for Shirley Mason, Marion Davies, and Fred Stone. After marrying in 1919 they began writing for Constance Talmadge, a collaboration that created a dozen feature comedies and lasted until 1925. Emerson continued writing and producing until the mid 1930s.

How Dry I Am (12/7/1919) Prod: Rolin. Dir: Charles Parrott. Dist: Pathe. One reel. Cast: Snub Pollard, Mildred Davis, Sunshine Sammy, Noah Young, Eddie Boland, Gaylord Lloyd.

Snub Pollard is still one of the most recognizable faces of silent comedy. Born Harold Frasier in Australia in 1886, he came to America with a children’s comic opera troupe called Pollard’s Lilliputians and took Pollard as his name after the group disbanded. He began appearing in Essanay films around 1914, turning up in Chaplin’s BY THE SEA and POLICE (both ’15), and, more importantly, was a member of the general stock company in comedies directed by Hal Roach. Soon Roach set up his own production company and hired Snub to support his star comic Harold Lloyd. In 1919 Snub was given his own one-reel series, cranking out as many as forty a year. His character was that of a goofy goon with a Fu Manchu moustache. His breezy, anything-for-a-laugh style of films were closer to the Mack Sennett school of comedy, and when the Roach house style became more sophisticated in the mid 1920s Snub’s series was discontinued. After a return to vaudeville in 1926 he moved over to the independent Weiss Brothers Artclass Pictures for a series of poverty-row shorts that teamed him with corpulent Marvin Lobach in pale and outright imitations of Laurel & Hardy films. Reduced to bit parts in sound films, he plugged away in shorts, features and television until his death in 1962, even appearing as himself in films about old Hollywood such as MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES (’57).

Snub always got a lot of help from his friends in his Roach comedies, with Mildred Davis and Sunshine Sammy Morrison on hand in HOW DRY I AM. Mildred had already been working with Harold Lloyd, but while he was re-cooperating after his bomb accident she kept busy as Snub’s leading lady. Sunshine Sammy had recently come from supporting Baby Marie Osborne and “Fatty” Arbuckle, not to mention doing a few starring shorts of his own, to being the comedy secret weapon of the Roach lot. After working with Lloyd, Snub, Eddie Boland, and Paul Parrott, Roach built Our Gang around Sammy in 1922 where he stayed until he left pictures for vaudeville in 1924. Another of Snub’s frequent supports in his early one-reelers was comedian Eddie Boland, a stage veteran who had appeared in Universal’s Joker Comedies. Roach soon moved Boland into his own series with the Vanity Fair Girls, but as his character was rather nondescript the series only lasted into 1922. Boland was much more effective as support in features where he was usually cast as a boozer or a con man. His most memorable appearance was probably as the carnival barker in Harold Lloyd’s THE KID BROTHER (’27), and he also did some great work in a number of mid 20s Lloyd Hamilton shorts. He continued appearing in features until his death in 1935.

One of the most ubiquitous faces on the Roach lot was pug-ugly Noah Young. A former champion weight-lifter, according to Hal Roach he was turned down for World War I service because of bad teeth, and in 1918 he began menacing and manhandling every comic at the studio until the end of the silent era. Although busy at Roach he still found time to play support in various comedy and western features. Harold Lloyd’s first talkie WELCOME DANGER (’29) revealed that Noah had a voice that was very similar to Mickey Mouses’ pal Goofy, and his roles dwindled to walk-ons and bits. His last known appearances were in 1935 Roach titles such as THE FIXER UPPERS and VAGABOND LADY. Also appearing is Harold Lloyd’s older brother Gaylord. A member of the Roach stock company from its inception (JUST NUTS (’15) in MoMA’s collection), as kids Gaylord got Harold his first stage role, and the two remained close all their lives. Gaylord did whatever was needed on camera and off for the fledgling Roach company, and when the studio decided to revive Lonesome Luke in 1921 he was given the role. Five shorts were made, but despite a nice build up, good production values, and funny gags, Gaylord didn’t have the appeal of Harold. Continuing to do small bits, when Harold set up his own corporation in 1923 Gaylord became its casting director and assistant director on many of the Lloyd features. He still worked on other films, and on the set of SCARFACE (’32) lost an eye in an incident that was similar to Harold’s 1919 accident with a live bomb. After receiving a small settlement from the production company, Gaylord worked for Harold until his death in 1943.

The Gum Riot (1920) Arrow-Hank Mann Super Comedy. Prod: Morris R. Schlank. Dir: ?. Dist: Arrow. Two reels. Cast: Hank Mann, Vernon Dent, Madge Kirby, Jess Weldon, Jack Richardson.

Hank Mann is considered the comedian’s comedian of the silent era with his underplayed style and dry wit. He began at Keystone in 1913, made a name for himself there, and then starred at L-KO, back again at Sennett, and finally Fox Films before he began this series for producer Morris Schlank in 1919. Starting as one-reelers they expanded to two the next year with BROKEN BUBBLES (’20 – in MoMA’s collection). The shooting of these comedies was non-stop during 1919 to 1921, and the Feb. 14, 1920 issue of the Exhibitor’s Herald describes the process – “In order to produce twenty-six two-reel comedies this year, Morris Schlank, the producer, is working two companies with two directors. Just as soon as one comedy is completed Mr. Mann steps into the picture that has been started by the second director, while the first director cuts and edits the completed picture.”

Over forty comedies were completed during that three year period, and although the films have no official director credit the trade magazines list Charles Parrott (a.k.a. Charley Chase), Tom Gibson, Herman C. Raymaker, Al Santell, and Robert Kerr as being behind the megaphone at various times. After all the shorts were made they remained in circulation for the next few years, and it appears that Hank’s trademark character with the brush moustache, bowl haircut and derby was under contract to producer Schlank while they played. In the meantime he worked as a gag writer for Lloyd Hamilton, Jack White Comedies, and Christie Comedies where he often turns up in funny cameo bits “au natural.” He wouldn’t appear again his old comedy get-up until a 1926 series for Tennek/Sava Films.

Hank’s heavy and second banana in this series was his discovery Vernon Dent, who became one of the rocks of early screen comedy. Dent was a vaudevillian and singer in cafes when Mann tapped him for these comedies, and it wasn’t long before he was starring in his own series of Folly Comedies for the Pacific Film Co. There was more than a little “Fatty” Arbuckle in this group of shorts, from Vernon’s costume to the rural settings and situations. After free-lancing a bit, he was hired by Mack Sennett in 1923 and became a fixture on the lot where he provided the comic gravity to counterpoint the antics of clowns such as Billy Bevan and Harry Langdon. Always in demand he appeared in features like THE CAMERAMAN and GOLF WIDOWS (both ’28), plus some late silent shorts for Jack White Comedies where he was teamed with Monty Collins. He continued in sound pictures without missing a beat, turning up in features and sound shorts for Educational, Sennett, Vitaphone, and Paramount. In 1935 he joined the stock company at the Columbia shorts department where he stayed for over twenty years making screen life difficult for the Three Stooges, Andy Clyde, Harry Langdon, Vera Vague, Hugh Herbert, El Brendel, Quillan & Vernon, and Bert Wheeler. His last appearance (via stock footage) was with the Stooges in GUNS A-POPPIN (’57), and he died in 1963.

Another fixture in Hank’s Arrow comedies was little Jess Weldon, who usually played his boss or some other authority figure. Sometimes described as a dwarf, he seemed to have been born old and was as big around as he was tall. His screen appearances started in the late ‘teens in Fox Sunshine and Vitagraph Comedies, and his feature films include playing the head eunuch in Douglas Fairbanks’ THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (’24). Weldon died in 1925 the day before he was to stand trial on drug trafficking charges. Also getting some early exposure in this series was Jack Richardson, who later became known for his comic villainy at the Sennett studio. Born in London, Richardson began his career in the music halls and variety, and later appeared in stock in Vancouver, B.C. It’s been reported that Jack worked with Charlie Chaplin on the stage and made his first screen appearance with the Chaplin company, and from there he moved on to Vitagraph, First National, Fox Sunshine, and Hank’s series. In 1920 he settled into a five year run at Sennett where he connived and bullied the likes of Ben Turpin and Billy Bevan in comedies such as STEP FORWARD (’22) and SUPER-HOOPER-DYNE-LIZZIES (’25). After leaving Sennett in 1925 he turned up in comedies for Samuel Bischoff and the West Brothers – including a stint as Rotten Rudolph in their Hairbreadth Harry series – and in Jack White Comedies. His features include A SMALL TOWN IDOL (’21), Billy West’s THRILLING YOUTH (’26) and BARE KNEES (’28). In the early days of sound he appeared in small bits in Hal Roach and Mack Sennett shorts, and continued in many features like MOVIE CRAZY (’32), THE ROARING TWENTIES (’39), and MEET JOHN DOE (’41) up to his death in 1942.

What a Night (11/30/1924) Mermaid Comedy. Prod: Jack White. Dir: Norman Taurog. Dist: Educational Pictures. Two reels. Cast: Lige Conley, Otto Fries, Louise Carver, Clem Beauchamp, Phil Dunham, Al Thompson, Jack Lloyd, Bert Young.

Although overlooked today Lige Conley was a popular comic of the mid 1920s, in a series of fast and furious two-reelers for Jack White Comedies. Billed as “the Speed Boy of the Screen,” Conley was a local California boy who began appearing in Keystone films as a teen, and through stints at Sennett, Roach, L-Ko, Lehrman, and Reelcraft worked his way up to a starring position. Sadly his popularity didn’t last long after leaving White in 1926, and following a starring series for Fox he was relegated to mostly behind the scenes work until his death in 1937. Conley’s Jack White comedies were distributed by Educational Pictures, probably the biggest independent distributor of comedy shorts in the 1920s, best remembered for its Aladdin’s lamp trademark with the slogan “The Spice of the Program.” Educational was founded by E.W. Hammons in 1915 with the idea of supplying educational films to schools. When that proved to not be lucrative Hammons turned to distributing “short subjects” – newsreels, cartoons, travelogues – to fill out the typical movie program. His specialty became comedy shorts, and during the 20s he handled the product of Jack White, Al Christie, C.C. Burr, Chester Comedies, Hamilton Comedies, Charley Bowers, and others. The change-over to sound and the depression brought a cheapening of his offerings, but Hammons stayed in slugging until economic issues finally forced him out of the business in 1939.

Producer Jack White was the boy wonder of silent comedy and today is its forgotten mogul. Born in Hungary as Jacob Weiss, his family came to America, anglicized their name, and settled in Edendale, California where the movie industry was shooting up all around them. Jack began his career as an office boy at Keystone in 1912, where he was frequently used in kid’s roles in shorts like FATTY JOINS THE FORCE and HIS SISTER’S KIDS (both ’13). Fired by Sennett for inadvertently delivering a rival job offer to Ford Sterling that led him to leave and star at Sterling Pictures, White spent the next few years working for Henry “Pathe” Lehrman – first at Sterling, then learning editing at L-Ko, and directing Fox comedies by age 19. At Fox he met and formed a partnership with Lloyd Hamilton, and became a full-fledged producer in 1920 at age 21 when they began distributing their shorts through Educational. The 1920s was a golden decade for White when he released Mermaid, Tuxedo, Ideal and one-reel Cameo Comedies starring the likes of Lloyd Hamilton, Lige Conley, Jimmie Adams, Lupino Lane, Al St John, Johnny Arthur, Malcolm “Big Boy” Sebastian, Sid Smith, Jerry Drew, Wallace Lupino, Monty Collins, and Cliff Bowes. Behind-the-scenes talent that worked for White included Norman Taurog, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle (as William Goodrich), Fred Hibbard, Charles Riesner, Lloyd Bacon, Gilbert Pratt, Stephen Roberts, and his younger brother Jules White. When sound arrived White plowed ahead with his Jack White All-Talking Comedies, but the changes in the industry combined with the depression, a nasty divorce, and nervous exhaustion led to the filing of bankruptcy that was the end of the company. Although only in his early 30s White was never able to regain his footing in the industry and mostly worked on and off for his brother Jules at the Columbia Shorts Department writing, and occasionally directing the Three Stooges and Andy Clyde (billed as Preston Black). White died in 1984 at age 87.

Director Norman Taurog had been one of Jack White’s gagmen/assistants at Fox, and became one of his best and most prolific directors in the 1920s. Having been a child actor on the stage, Taurog hated the way he photographed on film so he moved behind the camera. After being an assistant at Fox he really started his directing career when he signed with Larry Semon at age 20 in 1920 (so young his mother had to sign the contract). From working with Semon for three years he jumped around to Joe Rock, Century, and other Universal shorts, before settling in with the White unit. In the early sound era he moved into features, and won a Best Director Oscar for SKIPPY (’31). Prestigious films such as THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER and BOY’S TOWN (both ’38) followed, and the last leg of his long career was spent working mostly with Jerry Lewis and Elvis Presley, where his years of experience directing kids and animals surely came in handy.

WHAT A NIGHT has a large assortment of stalwart comedy supporting players who were not only Jack White regulars but turned up all over the silent comedy map. Large and fierce Louise Carver was married in real-life to supporting comic Tom Murray. Hard to beat as the cigar-chomping cook in Harry Langdon’s THE FIRST 100 YEARS (’24), another great Carver moment is in MASKED MAMAS (’25) when Billy Bevan sees her at a masquerade party and tries to pull off her face, thinking it’s an ugly party mask. Burly Otto Fries was an all-purpose heavy for Sennett, Roach, Fox, and every place in between, who also appeared in features like PARDON US (’31) and EVERY DAY’S A HOLIDAY (’38) before his death at 50. British-born Phil Dunham played leads in L-Ko, Century and the one-reel Cameo Comedies, in addition to support in the Mermaid series. He later became a screenwriter for features such as THE DUKE IS TOPS (’38) and TWO-GUN TROUBADOUR (’39). Lige’s drunken pal is played by Clem Beauchamp, who started in films as a stuntman before becoming a supporting comic and director. In the late 20s White starred him as Jerry Drew in a two-reel series about a Raymond Griffith type playboy. Sound saw Beauchamp become an ace assistant director, winning an Oscar for his work on LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER (’35), before retiring in 1967. Jug-eared Al Thompson specialized in taking the brunt of physical punishment for Larry Semon, Jack White Comedies, and the Columbia Shorts Department in a career that lasted into the late 1950s. Last but not least, Jack Lloyd and Bert Young were unsung players who toiled without attention, but were seasoned straightmen. Lloyd, an English actor with no comic persona, was a utility man and could play any character that was needed. The best description of Bert Young was that of “a mug.” When a lazy brother-in-law, an irate customer in a diner, or a drunken lout was needed Bert filled the bill into the 1930s.

Gender Benders: Masculine Women/Feminine Men

2010-10-04T12:29:00.004-04:00

"Gender Benders: Masculine Women/Feminine Men"

(film notes written by Steve Massa)

Rowdy Ann (5/25/1919) Christie Comedy. Prod & Dir: Al Christie. Two reels. Cast: Fay Tincher, Harry Depp, Eddie Barry, Katherine Lewis, Al Haynes, George B. French, Edgar Blue.

In general silent comediennes have been overlooked, and one of the most neglected is Fay Tincher. Although she entertained audiences for almost twenty years, few of her films are available to viewers today. Her background was in musical comedy, where she was a chorus girl in shows starring Weber & Fields, Lillian Russell, and William Collier when she was “discovered” for films by D.W. Griffith. She played a vamp in his 1914 feature THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES and became part of his stable of performers at Reliance/Majestic. Deciding that her gifts lay in comedy he put her in a series of Komic Komedies surrounded by performers like Max Davidson, Tammany Young, Tod Browning, and Edward Dillon, who also directed. When they began a series of “Bill the Office Boy” comedies Fay became a star playing a gum-chewing, no-nonsense stenographer named Ethel who dressed completely in black and white, with loud garish stripes that made her look like a human zebra.

Staying with Griffith on his move to the Fine Arts Studio, Fay supported stage star DeWolf Hopper in features such as DON QUIXOTE and SUNSHINE DAD (both ’16), plus continued in shorts written by Anita Loos, with the black and white outfits as her trademark. By 1919 she was no longer with Griffith and signed a contract with Al Christie. A new persona, that of a wild and western cowgirl, was devised for Fay, and popular shorts like ROWDY ANN, DANGEROUS NAN MCGREW, and GO WEST YOUNG WOMAN (all ’19) ensued. Fay left Christie in the early 20s and was co-starred with Joe Murphy in Universal’s live-action version of the comic strip The Gumps, which lasted from 1923 to the end of the silent era. When the series ended so did Fay’s career, and she slipped below the radar until her death in Brooklyn in 1983 at the age of 99.

Producer Al Christie was one of the biggest names in film comedy, although today it doesn’t have the ring of Mack Sennett or Hal Roach. Born in London, Ontario in 1879, he began his career as a stage manager for various companies which eventually brought him to New York. In 1909 he became a director for David Horsley’s Nestor Film Co. and had his first success with a live-action “Mutt and Jeff” series. Nestor and Christie moved to Hollywood in 1911, where they made one-reelers distributed by Universal. Eddie Lyons and Lee Moran became popular under Al’s direction, but in 1916 he severed his connection, and with his brother Charles produced comedies under his own name for the independent market. In the 1920s he distributed his films first through Educational, then Paramount, and his stars like Bobby Vernon, Dorothy Devore, Neal Burns, and Jimmie Adams were some of the most popular of the day. Although he jumped right into sound production the new medium didn’t treat him very well. The combination of the changes in the industry with the depression drove him into bankruptcy, and in the mid 30s he became supervisor for the East Coast productions of Educational Pictures, overseeing the shorts with New York stage stars such as Joe Cook, Bert Lahr, and Danny Kaye. After Educational closed at the end of the decade Christie had trouble getting work, and finally retired from films in 1942 to work for the Douglas Aircraft Company until his death in 1951.

Fay’s school teachers are played by Christie stalwarts Eddie Barry and George B. French. The older brother of star Neal Burns, Barry came from a stage background and began working for Al Christie in 1916. He spent most of his career there, although he did find time to appear at L-Ko, Century, and Bulls Eye, plus a few late 20s low-budget western and action features. Having a near brush with stardom in the early 20s when he headlined in Christie shorts like MR. FATIMA (’20), not to mention a few vehicles at Universal and an independent series with Vera Reynolds, by 1924 he was firmly set in the supporting ranks. After making only two or three talking films Barry retired in 1930. Playing the head of the school is George B. French, an ex-stock company and vaudeville actor who was a standard ingredient in Christie Comedies for a decade. Starting at Nestor in 1915 French supported all the Christie stars and even found time to play a reoccurring character in the features TARZAN OF THE APES and its sequel THE ROMANCE OF TARZAN (both ’18). In the mid 1920s he left Christie and switched his allegiance to the Hal Roach studio, appearing in many Our Gang shorts like THUNDERING FLEAS (’26) and TEN YEARS OLD (’27), not to mention features such as Monty Banks’ HORSE SHOES (’27) and GRINNING GUNS (’27) with Jack Hoxie. In the sound era he worked in uncredited bits until 1943.

Hearts and Flowers (6/22/1919) Sennett Comedy. Dir: Edward Cline. Dist: Paramount. Two reels. Cast: Louise Fazenda, Ford Sterling, Phyllis Haver, Billy Armstrong, Jack Ackroyd, Kalla Pasha, Edgar Kennedy, Eva Thatcher, Bert Roach, Charles “Heinie” Conklin, Virginia Fox, Sybil Sealy, Sennett Bathing Girls.

Louise Fazenda and Phyllis Haver were two of Mack Sennett’s biggest female stars of the late ‘teens and early 20s, and HEARTS AND FLOWERS gives us a good look at both. Louise Fazenda is mostly remembered today for the pig-tailed, country bumpkin character that she made popular at this time. She came from the stage and in 1913 began working in Universal’s Joker Comedies alongside Max Asher, Gale Henry and Bobby Vernon, often playing the young ingénue. By 1915 she was with Sennett where she became a star and would stay until 1921. At first she played a variety of roles, but soon became the country girl who was usually taken advantage of by some conniving fellow. Louise roughhoused with the best of them, but besides being a wonderful comedienne was also a fine actress who made all her outlandish comedy roles very believable. After leaving Sennett she starred in shorts for Punch Comedies and Jack White, then made the jump to features in the mid 1920s. From supporting roles in films like THE NIGHT CLUB (’25) and THE BAT (’26), she signed with Warner Brothers and starred in a string of features that included FOOTLOOSE WIDOWS (’26) and A SAILOR’S SWEETHEART (’27). In sound films she continued in major supporting roles until 1939. Married to producer Hal Wallis, she retired and devoted herself to charity work until her death in 1962.

Blonde and beautiful Phyllis Haver was one of the few Sennett Bathing Girls to become a full-fledged star, and to move onto a substantial career outside of the Sennett studio. Born Phyllis O’Haver, she moved from Kansas to California in 1907, and while in high school played piano accompaniment to films, in addition to doing extra work at Keystone and Paramount. In 1917 she began getting featured roles at Sennett, and like her high school friend Marie Prevost soon became the leading lady in shorts such as HIS LAST FALSE STEP (’19) and LOVE AND DOUGHNUTS (’21). She made a very good impression in Sennett features like LOVE, HONOR AND BEHAVE (’20) and A SMALL TOWN IDOL (’21), so much so that Sennett had plans to star her in features starting with THE EXTRA GIRL (later filmed with Mabel Normand in 1923), but she left the production and the studio. Proving to be a fine dramatic actress in prestigious films such as THE CHRISTIAN (’23), SO BIG (’24), WHAT PRICE GLORY? (’26), and THE WAY OF ALL FLESH (’28), she still appeared in comedy items like UP IN MABEL’S ROOM and THE NERVOUS WRECK (both ’26). Probably her best starring role was as Roxie Hart in CHICAGO (’27), which has recently been restored and made available on video. After a few early talkies she married millionaire William Seeman and retired from the screen. Sadly the marriage didn’t last, and at age 61 Haver took an overdose of pills and died in 1960.

Ford Sterling co-stars with the ladies, giving a funny and subtle performance, which shows how well he had adapted his style from the early Sennett days. Remembered for his over-the-top performances circa 1913 and 1914, Sterling was Sennett’s second breakout star and like Fred Mace would in the ‘teens move away to headline his own companies, but then return to the Sennett fold. When HEARTS AND FLOWERS was made in 1919 he was just about to leave Sennett for good to begin freelancing as a supporting character actor in features such as HOLLYWOOD (’23), HE WHO GETS SLAPPED (’24) and GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (’28). Ford even had the lead in THE SHOW-OFF (’26), and made a good transition to sound in pictures like HER MAJESTY LOVE (’31) and ALICE IN WONDERLAND (’33). He also starred in shorts for Christie, Paramount, and RKO, but was besieged by health problems and died in 1939.

Prominent in the supporting cast, which includes Kalla Pasha, Edgar Kennedy, Eva Thatcher, and two future Buster Keaton leading ladies – Virginia Fox and Sybil Sealey, is Billy Armstrong, an English music hall and Fred Karno veteran who entered films in 1915 with Charlie Chaplin, playing rowdy janitors and crooked preachers in his Essanay comedies. Moving off on his own Billy turned up at Cub Comedies, Keystone Triangle, L-Ko, Roach, Century, and Sennett. Occasionally he would star, but was usually in support, often in more than one role. In his last appearances, such as SMILE PLEASE and CONDUCTOR 1492 (both’24), Armstrong looks terrible – years older than his actual age – probably due to the tuberculosis that killed him in 1924. Practically stealing the picture as Louises’ stunted and slow-on-the-uptake suitor is little Jack Ackroyd, another British stage refugee who was ubiquitous in Sennett and Roach shorts of the early 1920s. Usually playing eccentric characters much older than his real age, he can also be spotted in Christie, Jack White, Samuel Bischoff, Hallroom Boys, Fox Imperials and Special Comedies. Among his features are THE CRUISE OF THE JASPER B and THE BETTER ‘OLE (both ’26), where he had his best role and gave a touching performance as Syd Chaplin’s army buddy Little Alf. Ackroyd continued playing bits in American films into the early 1930s.

Shanghaied Lovers (3/30/1924) Prod: Mack Sennett. Dir: Roy Del Ruth. Dist: Pathe. 2nd reel of 2. Cast: Harry Langdon, Alice Day, Kalla Pasha, Andy Clyde, Roscoe “Tiny” Ward, Joe Young, George Cooper, Gordon Lewis, Billy Armstrong, Eli Stanton.

Harry Langdon was the silent comedy rocket that blasted off with his shorts for Mack Sennett, only to sputter out of control after his feature LONG PANTS (’27). His silent screen persona is usually described as an adult baby, but he was also very much like a modern Rip Van Winkle, awakened after a hundred year nap to find everything around him new, strange and frightening. All that slow blinking seems like he’s trying to clear decades of sleep from his eyes. Harry’s character came together during his time with Sennett, with his independent features explorations of where and how this shrimp could possibly survive in the universe. Many of Harry’s Sennett comedies like this one, HIS NEW MAMA or LUCK OF THE FOOLISH (all ’24) have only been available in fragmentary form. This is the second reel of SHANGHAIED LOVERS, while the first reel has recently turned up in a television version the separate footage has yet to be officially put together. In the first part of the film honeymooners Harry and Alice are shanghaied, and Alice dresses as a man to escape the advances of the ship’s captain.

In our last go-round we showed A DEEP SEA PANIC (‘24) a Fox Comedies remake of this Sennett original, redone by the same director Roy Del Ruth with burly Kalla Pasha repeating his role of the tough sea captain. Pasha, whose real name was the less threatening Joseph T. Rickard, was a live-action version of Popeye’s rival Bluto and one of the great comedy foils. His background was a combination of stage, carnivals and circuses, plus professional boxing and wrestling, where he was billed as “The Terrible Turk.” Beginning in 1919 he menaced all the comics on the Sennett lot, and after 1924 began free-lancing in Fox, Christie and Hal Roach comedies, while his feature appearances included Tod Browning’s THE WICKED DARLING (’19) and WEST OF ZANZIBAR (’28). After sound arrived his roles were reduced to bit parts, and he soon began acting out some of his screen antics in real life. In a 1932 altercation with a streetcar conductor he broke an ink bottle over the man’s head, but was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to the Mendocino State Hospital. He died there a year later in 1933.

Harry’s forlorn wife is played by Alice Day, a pretty actress who worked her way up from being a bathing beauty to one of Sennett’s main stars of the 1920s. The pert and perky Day was the recipient of Sennett’s move into light romantic comedies and starred in shorts such as TEE FOR TWO (’25) and A LOVE SUNDAE (’26). Her younger sister Marceline also graduated from Sennett and supported Buster Keaton in THE CAMERAMAN (’28). Moving into features such as THE GORILLA (’27) and THE SMART SET (’28) Alice continued briefly in talking films but retired in 1932. Last, but not least, the ship’s cook is the enormous Roscoe “Tiny” Ward, a silent comedy regular who was in the 6’ 7’’ ballpark. After playing college football, Ward made his screen debut in 1918 and appeared everywhere with practically everyone until the mid-1940s.

A Sorority Mix-Up (3/19/1927) A Sunkist Comedy. Prod: Al Nathan. Dir: Joseph Basil. Dist: Bray Productions. 2 reels. Cast: Buddy Messinger, Anne Porter, Madalynn Field, Henry Roquemore, Mr. X (chimp), Alice Belcher, the Sunkist Bathing Beauties.

Melvin Joe Messinger, better known as Buddy, started in films at age 9 in 1916. Along with his sisters Gertie and Marie he had been part of the child ensemble in Chester and Sidney Franklin’s witty feature-length fairy tale epics like ALADDIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP (’17) and ALI BABA AND HIS FORTY THIEVES (’18), plus was a regular in the Goldwyn “Edgar Comedies” which starred Edward Piel Jr. as Johnny Jones. Good roles in features such as SHADOWS (’22) and PENROD AND SAM (’23) followed and Buddy was tapped by Century Comedies for his own series of shorts from 1923 into 1925. Frequently supported by some soon to be well-known kids like Martha Sleeper and Spec O’Donnell, almost all of these comedies are lost thanks to Universal’s particularly bad survival rates. In 1926 Bray launched the now teenaged Buddy in this series about college hi-jinks (most of which revolved around him in female attire) and teamed him with a chimp named Mr. X. From here Buddy finished the 1920s in a few features and more shorts for Universal and Weiss Brothers like FLIRTING WITH THE MOVIES (’27), but he really didn’t click in sound pictures and played uncredited bit roles into the 1940s. When the 1950s rolled around he’d become an assistant director on television shows and movies as diverse as THE ATOMIC KID (’54), GIANT (’56) and THE CLOWN AND THE KID (’61), but died young at 58 in 1965.

As mentioned before Buddy’s co-star was a chimp referred to as M. X, which sometimes was in the person of a real chimp, and other times a midget in a bad chimp costume (perhaps when the script was very bad and the chimp refused to work). Also in support are two Mack Sennett regulars Madalynn Field and Alice Belcher. As “Beefy,” who’s gleefully in charge of paddling the new sorority recruits, large Madalynn Field (6,” 250 lbs.) steals the film. Entering movies as a teenager in 1925 her size made her a comedy natural and she appeared in shorts for Fox, Universal, Bray, and William Pizor, plus features such as Colleen Moore’s ELLA CINDERS (’26). Often in tiny bits as the big girl the boys aren’t interested in, she made an impression in Mack Sennett’s 1927-28 “Sennett Girl Comedies” such as RUN, GIRL, RUN (’28) where she became best and lasting friends with the series star Carole Lombard. After sound arrived Field mostly retired from the screen, becoming the unofficial business manager for Carole Lombard and marrying director Walter Lang. Ugly Alice Belcher was beautiful in her homeliness, as her mirror-cracking face resembled Frank Hayes in drag. Her first movie appearances were in 1916, and she worked everywhere – most frequently at Sennett, but also for Roach and Educational, and many features. Most typically Belcher was used as a gag pay-off, the usual situation would have her turn up as a flirty spinster in a long veil so the star comic could do a big take when finally getting a look at her face. In sound she continued turning up with everyone from Laurel & Hardy to The Three Stooges, and was even profiled in a 1938 Paramount “Unusual Occupations” short before her death the next year.

Producer Al Nathan is officially credited as director for this series, but they were really helmed by a variety of silent comedy professionals on the order of director Edward Luddy. The director for A SORORITY MIX-UP is Joseph Basil, who is one of the forgotten foot soldiers of silent comedy who toiled for many years in front of and behind the camera, but because he usually worked on lower budgeted independent shorts his contributions are hard to trace. In fact, many sources such as IMDB mix Basil up with Joe Rock. While they started together at Vitagraph at the same time they are two different people (Rock at that time was working under his real name of Joe Simburg). Born in Brooklyn, Joe Basil’s early years were spent as an athlete and swimming instructor, both which came in handy when he entered films at Vitagraph’s Flatbush studio. Becoming a part of the Big V Riot Squad – a group of comedy second bananas that also included Joe Rock, Earl Montgomery and Pete Gordon – Basil ran, leapt, fell, and sometimes flew through the air in support of star Larry Semon. Eventually becoming an assistant to Semon, contributing gags and co-directing, Basil set out on his own in 1920 and worked for the short-lived King Cole Comedies and Reelcraft Comedies before returning to Semon for 1922 and 1923. Through the rest of the decade he assisted on indie features such as A DESPERATE MOMENT (’26) and was on the writing staff for comedy series made by Larry Darmour Productions such as Mickey McGuire and A Ton of Fun.

Crushed (11/23/1924) Hamilton Comedies. Dir: Fred Hibbard. Dist: Educational Pictures. Two reels. Cast: Lloyd Hamilton, Blanche Payson, Dorothy Seastrom, Robert McKenzie, Louise Carver, Mark Hamilton, Jack McHugh, Tommie Hicks.

Of the major silent comedians Lloyd Hamilton is probably the one with the most missing films. There seems to be many more of his early and rough Ham & Bud comedies available than his mature work of the 1920s. The shorts he made between 1921 through 1923 were regarded as his creative peak, but out of those fifteen comedies only MOONSHINE and THE VAGRANT (both’21) circulate today. Starting with 1924 a number of his shorts exist in varying degrees of completeness – GOOD MORNING (’24), HOOKED (’25) and NOTHING MATTERS (’26) only survive in one reel, while the recently resurfaced JONAH JONES (’24) is condensed. Luckily some excellent examples like CRUSHED (’24), THE MOVIES (’25), CAREFUL PLEASE and NOBODY’S BUSINESS (both ’26) exist in full versions to give us a good idea of Hamilton’s output at that time.

The epitome of the phrase “large and in charge” is 6’4,” 234 pound Blanche Payson. An ex-California policewoman, Blanche is remembered as the large cave-woman from Buster Keaton’s THE THREE AGES (’23). Although Buster claimed to have started her career at that time, she actually began at the Sennett studio in 1916 after getting local attention protecting ladies from mashers at the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915. Her first film appearance was in Sennett’s WIFE AND AUTO TROUBLE (’16) and after 1918 she menaced everyone in silent comedy – Lloyd Hamilton, Harold Lloyd, Billy West, Harry Langdon, Lupino Lane – plus was a regular in shorts for Sennett, Vitagraph, Fox Sunshine, Al Christie, Jack White, Century and Joe Rock. In addition to innumerable comedy features, she was even mean to Lillian Gish in the dramatic LA BOHEME (’26). After sound arrived she could still be seen scowling with her hands on her hips in many Hal Roach comedies, most memorably DOGS IS DOG (’31) and HELPMATES (’32), and went on to work in Columbia shorts and many features until the early 1940s.

Blonde Dorothy Seastrom was Ham’s leading lady in five shorts. Texas-born, and a former dancer at the Coconut Grove, Seastrom also appeared in Jack White comedies such as OH, TEACHER (’24) as well as small roles in features like IT MUST BE LOVE (’26). The first wife of comedy director/ cameraman Francis Corby, she died of tuberculosis at 26 in 1930. Director Fred Hibbard was Ham’s main collaborator at this time. Born in Romania, he began his career as Fred Fishback with Thomas Ince, working on the “Shorty” Hamilton comedies. After moving over to Keystone he became an assistant to Roscoe Arbuckle, and then a full-fledged director, helming many of Mack Swain’s “Ambrose” comedies. After a brief stay at Fox Sunshine Comedies he settled in at Century where he worked on Baby Peggy’s and the Century Lion series. Having been an attendee at Arbuckle’s 1921 Labor Day party and involved in the infamous trials, he changed his name to Hibbard and switched over to Jack White Comedies to work on Lige Conley and Cameo Comedies. Not long after hooking up with Hamilton, Hibbard developed cancer but continued working until the end. CRUSHED came out a little more than a month before he died in January of 1925 at age 30, and his last two films – HOOKED and HALF A HERO (both’25) – were released after his death.

The Surreal Life: Dalliance with the Absurd

2010-10-04T12:27:00.002-04:00

"The Surreal Life: Dalliance with the Absurd"

(film notes written by Steve Massa)

Some Hero (10/23/1916) A Tweedledum Comedy. Prod: Eagle Film Co. Dir: Marcel Perez. One reel. Cast: Marcel Perez, Babette Perez, Jerry Jellman, Jim McGowan, Charles Sharp, Billy Slade.

In the history of silent film comedy there are many “unknown soldiers,” who for various reasons have slipped through the cracks into total obscurity. Charley Bowers is an example of someone who has only recently been rescued from this group, while Century Comedies comedienne Wanda Wiley and the Danish comedy team of Pat and Patachon are still neglected. Another whose career is in dire need of re-examination is Marcel Perez. One of the earliest screen clowns, by 1911 Perez was known world-wide. He came to America in 1915 and worked over here as a comedian, director and writer until 1927. Along with Max Linder he was one of the few direct links between European and American silent comedy, but unforeseeable events brought his performing career to an abrupt end and shortened his life. Much better remembered in Europe for his work there, his American films, despite a prolific output and some excellent surviving examples, are completely forgotten today.

Born in Madrid, Perez spent most of his youth in Paris where he grew up clowning in circuses and music halls. He entered films in 1900 and worked for Pathe, Eclipse and Éclair. His first big success was the 1907 Eclipse comedy THE SHORT-SIGHTED CYCLIST (in MoMA’s collection) where he plays a bike messenger who loses his glasses and runs into pedestrians, horsecarts, shop displays, and anything else in his path. In 1910 he began a series of Robinet comedies for the Ambrosio Company of Italy, starring and directing under the name of Marcel Fabre. Becoming popular around the world, he was nicknamed Tweedledum in America and England and was joined in the films by Nilde Barrachi as Robinette. His best-known film from this period is AMOR PEDESTRE (LOVE AFOOT ’14) which showcases his sophistication and ingenuity as a director with a clever version of a love triangle soap opera that is performed entirely by the actor’s feet.

After five years as Robinet the outbreak of World War I brought him to the U.S. in 1915 where he ended up in Jacksonville, Florida, a beehive of film activity in the latter part of the ‘teens. Working first for Vim, Perez soon moved to the Eagle Film Co. where he used his anglicized character name of Tweedledum for 11 misadventures of his bungling hero, who’s always in hot water but comes up with incredible schemes to get himself off the hook. SOME HERO is a spoof of cliffhanger serials with wonderful cartoon gags that has Tweedledee (his wife Nilde Barrachi now called Babette Perez) kidnapped and tortured by a gang of thugs with Tweedledum in hot pursuit to save her.

Never staying in one place very long, Perez left Eagle after a year and moved to other independent companies like Jester Comedies, Reelcraft and Sanford Productions, constantly changing his name and the moniker of his screen character. His birthname was Manuel Fernandez Perez but he worked variously as Marcel Perez, Marcel Fabre and Fernandez Perez, while his character’s names consisted of Robinet, Bungles, Tweedledum, Tweede-Dan and Tweedy as he made his gypsy-like way through early screen comedy. His performing career came to an end in 1922 during his series for Sandford Productions. While shooting a scene he fell on an upturned rake. The teeth of the rake sank into his leg penetrating the bone, resulting in the leg having to be amputated. The accident impaired his health for the remainder of his life, but after a two-year absence he was back in harness in 1924 directing and writing two-reelers for producer Joe Rock. He also directed a few western features and worked on the script for Reginald Denny’s OUT ALL NIGHT (’27).

Director Robert Florey, in his memoir HOLLYWOOD D’HIER ET D’AUJOURD ‘HUI, wrote about Perez’s accident and his last days. Although an actual obituary has yet to turn up it appears that Perez passed away sometime at the end of 1927 or in early 1928. Florey visited him at the hospital and describes him as being alone and ignored, which is also a good description of the way he’s been treated by posterity. Although many of his films exist, most are impossible to see outside of the major film archives, so the rarity of his work combined with his constant name-changing has kept him in the shadows. Over the last few years more of his American comedies have re-surfaced, so it’s hoped that they will make their way into the hands of comedy fans so they can experience and enjoy his unique talents.

A Schoolhouse Scandal (12/7/1919) Fox Sunshine Comedy. Dir: Edward Cline. Prod: Fox Films. Two reels. Cast: Slim Summerville, Polly Moran, Harry Booker, Ethel Teare, Tom Kennedy, Jack Cooper, James Donnelly, Francis Carpenter.

One of the “Holy Grails” of silent comedy is the Fox Sunshine Comedies, a series of two-reelers produced by the Fox Film Co. from 1917 to 1925. Out of 163 shorts produced something around only 25 are known to exist today. The survivors are tantalizing glimpses of a wild and crazy series filmed on a huge budget, full of extremely elaborate gags and a surreal, anything-for-a-laugh cartoon sensibility. Founded by comedy pioneer Henry “Pathe” Lehrman, the participants on and behind the screen make up an “A list” of who was who in silent comedy – Lloyd Hamilton, Jack White, Billie Ritchie, Eddie Cline, Chester Conklin, Jack Cooper, John G. Blystone, Al St John, Roy Del Ruth, William Watson, Fred Fishback, Harry Sweet, Frank Griffith, Poodles Hanneford, Norman Taurog, Bobby Dunn, and Edgar Kennedy, to name only a few.

One of Sunshine’s top players, as a director as well as star, was Slim Summerville. Previous to his joining Keystone in 1914, beanpole Slim had hoboed around the country and appeared in small theatre companies. Having an early beginning at Sennett and at first doing bits and stunts, Slim worked his way up to regular featured clown in support of Charlie Murray, Syd Chaplin, and Louise Fazenda. In 1916 Sennett teamed Summerville with little Bobby Dunn in shorts like THE WINNING PUNCH (’16) and VILLA OF THE MOVIES (’17), where they made a natural “Mutt and Jeff” combo playing opportunistic buddies not above doing dirt to each other to get ahead. Their partnership lasted for a number of years, continuing at Fox and also for a series of 1924 Universal one-reelers. In 1920 Slim began concentrating on directing and under his real first name of George helmed comedies for Fox, Joe Rock and Universal all through the 1920s. At the same time he continued turning up in shorts and played support in features such as THE BELOVED ROGUE (‘27). Slim’s career fared better than many silent comics, as the arrival of sound gave it a shot in the arm. After his wonderful performance in ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (’30) he starred in some talking shorts for Universal, but was generally a supporting player in “A” films and a star in “B’s.” Often teamed with Zasu Pitts, he worked up until his death in 1946.

Slim’s co-star in A SCHOOLHOUSE SCANDAL, and a regular star of Fox Sunshines, is zany Polly Moran. Remembered today for her sound films opposite Marie Dressler, Polly was a vaudeville headliner who appeared in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome and even Antwerp, singing, dancing and mugging her way into audience’s hearts. On joining Sennett in 1915 she was paired with Charlie Murray, usually as a janitor and his slattern wife, in a broad and grotesque portrayal of an Irish working-class couple. Polly’s style was always outrageous – if she saw a laugh opportunity she would confront it head on and wrestle it to the ground until it cried “uncle.” Around mid 1917 Polly emerged in a new character, Sheriff Nell, a rough and tumble lady marshal, which provided chances for turning gender roles on their head and plenty of room for western parody. Sheriff Nell was so popular that Polly took her over to Fox Sunshines when she left Sennett in 1918, and even carried her over to a series of independent two-reelers for CBC in the early 20s. After a return to vaudeville she took Hollywood hostage again in 1927 when she signed a contract with MGM to be their resident comic frump and played a succession of maids and landladies in dramatic pictures such as THE DIVINE WOMAN and WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS (both ’28). Soon she had her first teamings with Marie Dressler, and when sound arrived their popular series included POLITICS (’31) and PROSPERITY (’32). After Dressler’s death Polly’s direct and earthy style kept her in demand with depression audiences, but she slowed down the pace to just occasional appearances. Near the end of her life she suffered from heart trouble but came back to MGM and did bits in pictures like ADAM’S RIB (’49) and died at the age of 68 in 1952.

All Wet (9/2/1922) Al St John Comedy. Dir: Al St John. Prod: Fox Films. Two reels. Cast: Al St John, Otto Fries, Sy Jenks, Ford West, Tiny Ward.

ALL WET stars Al St John, one of the most prolific but underrated comedians of the silent era. Chiefly remembered today for the country villain character that he played in support of his uncle Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, in his overlooked solo films Al showed much more skill and versatility than he’s been given credit for. Al began working at Keystone a millisecond after his uncle Roscoe, and from 1913 to 1916 was part of the supporting ensemble at the studio, usually as bellboys, waiters, and of course bumbling cops. He even enjoyed an occasional juvenile lead, as in SHOT IN THE EXCITEMENT (’14) opposite Alice Howell. Bigger roles came his way in Arbuckle’s comedies and the signature character that developed was something like an evil gremlin’s country cousin. Al was the ultimate dumb (and dangerous) hick outfitted in checkered pants, long slapshoes, suspenders, and plaid shirts. Long and lean, he was the perfect physical contrast to the rotund Arbuckle. Sometimes his nose would be red, other times he had large freckles, and often he had missing teeth, but Al’s character was always ready to take offense and was bloodthirsty in his revenge.

Having become Roscoe’s right hand man and assisting him in the direction of the films, Al moved along with Roscoe when he left Sennett for his own Comique Company. Buster Keaton was added to the mix, and shorts like THE BUTCHER BOY (’17) and BACKSTAGE (‘19) were so popular that Arbuckle was moved into features, leaving Buster and Al to go on to their own shorts series. Al got a deal with Warner Brothers, and the next year ended up at the Fox Studio. ALL WET is part of this group, and while still playing a rube Al has toned down his performance style, adopting a new comic seriousness and underplayed style. “Keatonesque” is the term that comes to mind, and it’s possible that he was influenced by his former colleague’s approach to comedy. The film starts out as a remake of 1916’s FATTY AND MABEL ADRIFT, while the second reel turns into “Al St John meets George Melies,” as it depicts Al’s adventures under the sea with giant fish, a squid, a few mermaids, and other sea creatures.

Although the direction is credited to Al, it’s likely that his uncle Roscoe was behind the camera. Due to his famous Labor Day party scandal and subsequent murder trials Arbuckle had been off the screen, but it’s known that to keep busy he worked behind the scenes with his apprentices Keaton and St John. In fact, starting in 1922 not long after the last Arbuckle trial, Al began to take regular directorial credit on the shorts, a perfect situation for Roscoe’s involvement. Arbuckle’s fingerprints are not only on ALL WET in its re-working of FATTY AND MABEL ADRIFT, using many of the same locations and camera set-ups, but other survivors have big comedy set pieces that are directed with the kind of crisp staging and split-second timing that was an Arbuckle trademark. In OUT OF PLACE (’22) there’s even a “Fatty” clone in the person of Hilliard Karr, who dresses like Roscoe, engages in signature knockabout with Al, and re-enacts gags from one of Arbuckle’s very first Keystone comedies PASSIONS, HE HAD THREE (’13).
When Al left Fox in 1924 all remnants of his country boob character were gotten rid of. He finished out the 1920s in series for Reelcomedies, Inc (definitely directed by Arbuckle) and Jack White Comedies where he was now the clean-cut (but still bumbling) man-about town or young hubby. When sound arrived Al continued in comedy shorts for a while but by the late 1930s had re-packaged himself, with a beard and no teeth, as a popular western sidekick. For the next twenty years he supported cowboys like Buster Crabbe, Fred Scott, Don “Red” Barry, and Lash Larue, providing the much-needed comic relief with his old routines and falls. In 1952, unhappy with how cheap his oaters were getting, Al retired from films but continued making personal appearances with rodeos, circuses, and wild west shows. While waiting backstage to go on for one of these shows he suffered a massive heart attack and died in 1963.

Kiss Me Quick (a.k.a. Don’t Tickle) (10/7/1920) Fox Sunshine Comedy. Dir: John G. Blystone. Prod: Fox Films. 2 reels. Cast: Clyde Cook, Blanche Payson, Bobby Dunn, Frank “Fatty” Alexander.

KISS ME QUICK is a perfect showcase for the unusual and rubber-limbed comic Clyde Cook – known as “the Kangaroo Boy” due to his Aussie origins. Born in Port McQuarie, Australia, Cook began his eccentric dancing and acrobatics at age 6. At 16 he went to London and worked his way up through the halls and variety to tour the world, and eventually headlined at the Alhambra and Follies-Bergere. After World War I service in the Royal Navy he came to America and became a big hit at the New York Hippodrome, where in 1920 he was contracted for a series of Fox Sunshine Comedies. CHASE ME (’20) was the first, and 15 others such as THE GUIDE (’21), LAZY BONES (’22), plus the features SKIRTS (‘2 ) soon followed. In addition to his stunning acrobatics, Cook developed a deadpanned persona of a downtrodden and often hen-pecked individual who was always the victim of circumstances.

After leaving Fox in 1923 he made a couple of shorts at Buster Keaton’s studio for producer Joseph Schenck, and ended up on the Hal Roach lot in 1925 for 8 comedies that were mostly written or directed by Stan Laurel. Funny shorts like MOONLIGHT AND NOSES (’25) and WANDERING PAPAS (’26) ensued, but he left to star in Warner Brother features with Louise Fazenda. He was soon an in demand character player in big films such as BARBED WIRE (‘27), WHITE GOLD (‘27) and DOCKS OF NEW YORK (’28). Like fellow Australian Billy Bevan, Cook often played cockneys in sound films, and he continued to concentrate on comic relief roles until his retirement in 1963.

Director John G. Blystone began his career as Jack Blystone when a property man and sometime actor at Universal in the very early ‘teens. Working his way up to staff director, in 1915 it was announced that he and Harry Edwards became L-Ko directors under Henry “Pathe” Lehrman. When Lehrman “disengaged” himself from the company in 1916 Abe and Julius Stern took over and made Blystone the director-general. A year later when the Sterns started Century Comedies to showcase Alice Howell Blystone piloted all the first shorts, while still supervising the L-Ko product. At the very end of 1918 he re-joined Lehrman at Fox Sunshine Comedies, and again outlasted him there, working into the early 1920s on shorts with Clyde Cook and Lupino Lane. In 1923 he made the leap to directing features with A FRIENDLY HUSBAND starring Lupino Lane, and continued with Keaton’s OUR HOSPITALITY (’24) and the sci-fi comedy THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (’24 – in MoMA’s collection), not to mention ten of Tom Mix’s popular light-hearted westerns. Through the 1930s he worked steadily directing all types of features, but at the very end returned to his slapstick roots by piloting Laurel & Hardy’s SWISS MISS and BLOCKHEADS (both ’38). Sadly he died of a heart attack at age 45 just two weeks before BLOCKHEADS’ release.

Egged On (9/6/1926) A Whirlwind Comedy. Prod: R-C Pictures. Dir: Charley Bowers & H.L. Muller. Writ: Ted Sears. Dist: FBO. Two reels. Cast: Charley Bowers, Winifred Leighton, Fred Conklin, Dorothy Lewis.

For decades Charley Bowers was the “nowhere man” of silent comedy – so completely forgotten that when a few of his films started turning up in the 1970s it took a while to identify who he actually was. That he could be so overlooked is surprising as his comic vision is singular and unique. His seamless combination of live-action and amazing stop-action animation effects reveal him to be a direct heir of George Melies, making the impossible come true before our eyes. Eggs hatch into full-sized autos, a bewhiskered ghost appears and disappears through walls, plants grow so fast that they shoot up the planter’s pant leg and impale him in mid-air, and a little kilt-wearing insect is the assistant to a detective.

Born in Cresco, Iowa, many of the people who worked with Bowers described him as a congenital liar, and tall tales are an important theme in his films. His stories about his youth include being a child circus tightrope walker, bronco busting, directing Broadway plays, working as a jockey, and designing scenery. What we know for sure is that he was a newspaper cartoonist for papers such as The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Star, and through that became a pioneer in early film animation. Entering the industry in 1916 teamed with Raoul Barre, the pair produced the animated adventures of Bud Fisher’s famous newspaper duo Mutt and Jeff. Despite repeated fallings out with Barre and Fisher, Bowers continued the Mutt and Jeffs and other animation until the mid 1920s.

While producing these cartoons, he began experimenting with a process of combining stop-action and live-action, and launched a series with himself as star in 1926. EGGED ON was the first of 12 Whirlwind Comedies produced by R-C Pictures and distributed by FBO, in which Charley frequently played a daffy inventor in a quest to perfect unbreakable eggshells, automated restaurants, and slipless banana peels. In 1928 he moved to Hollywood and Educational Pictures for six more shorts, which included the mind-boggling THERE IT IS and SAY AHH (both ’28), and was Bowers last regularly produced series as when sound arrived his output became very sporadic. IT’S A BIRD (’30) was the last of his live action/animation combos, as the remainder of his surviving shorts are puppet films such as PETE-ROLEUM AND HIS COUSINS (’39 – made for the New York World’s Fair) and WILD OYSTERS (’40). Struck down with a debilitating illness in 1941 he was unable to work and lingered until 1946. Sadly at the time of his death his work had been forgotten and his films lost.

Even more neglected than Bowers is his main collaborator H. L. Muller, who photographed and co-directed the shorts. Harold L. Muller was born in London in 1893 and entered pictures in 1908 as an office boy with the Paul Urban Co. He worked for Kinemacolor in Britain and the U.S., shooting some of their 1914 Weber & Fields comedies, and became an official photographer for the U.S. Army during World War I. After a stint as chief photographer for Talking Motion Pictures, Inc. he hooked up with Bowers in New York, and they worked together for almost fifteen years. Although no information exists as to the exact division of their responsibilities, it would seem that Muller’s years of experience behind the camera supplied much technical know-how for Bower’s flights of fancy. Little is known about Muller after Bower’s 1941 retirement. His Variety obituary states that he was a projectionist in New York and died on Christmas Day in 1963.

Better known to animation buffs is the name Ted Sears, who was writer/gagman for the Whirlwind series. Born in 1900, Sears began working on Bower’s Mutt and Jeff cartoons at age 17, and spent a few years freelancing - lettering movie title cards, doing trick photography, as well as animating commercials for local New York businesses. In the mid 20s he hooked up with Bowers again, not only writing the Whirlwinds, but also going to Hollywood for the Educational shorts. After this he worked for Max and Dave Fleischer, and in 1931 found a permanent home at the Walt Disney Studio. He became the studio’s first Story Department head, and worked on all their major films, including SNOW WHITE, PINOCCHIO, THE THREE CABALLEROS, and SLEEPING BEAUTY, until his death in 1958.

Cruel and Unusual Comedy: ROUND TWO!!

2010-07-10T13:53:00.021-04:00

More Cruel and Unusual Comedy:
Social Commentary in the American Slapstick Film Part 2
(October 6 - 14, 2010)

Silent era slapstick treated social, cultural, political and aesthetic themes that continue to be central concerns around the world today. Issues of Race, ethnicity, gender, public order and industrialization have traditionally been among the most vital sources for rude forms of comedy. Drawing on the Museum’s holdings of silent comedy, acquired largely in the 1970’s and 80’s by retired curator Eileen Bowser, these programs present this otherwise little-seen body of work to contemporary audiences from an engaging perspective. The series continues with programs on the comedy of sexual identity, substance abuse, health care, homelessness and surrealism. All films are from the U.S. and are silent, with piano accompaniment by Ben Model.

Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, with Steve Massa, film historian, and Ben Model, film historian and accompanist.

Film notes for each individual program are posted separately on this site.

"Gender Benders: Masculine Women/Feminine Men"
Fri, Oct 8 at 4:30 & Sat Oct 9 at 8:00

Rowdy Ann (1919) - Fay Tincher
Hearts and Flowers (1919) - Louise Fazenda, Ford Sterling, Phyllis Haver
Shanghaied Lovers (1924) - Harry Langdon, Kalla Pasha, Alice Day, Andy Clyde
A Sorority Mix-Up (1927) - Buddy Messinger, Anne Porter, Mr. X (chimp)
Crushed (1924) - Lloyd Hamilton, Dorothy Seastrom, Blanche Payson

"Altered States: Under the Influence"
Thurs Oct 7 at 8:00 & Thurs Oct 14 at 4:30

Mabel’s Married Life (1914) - Charlie Chaplin, Normand, Mack Swain
Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1915) - Douglas Fairbanks, Bessie Love
How Dry I Am (1919) - Snub Pollard, Ernest “Sunshine Sammy” Morrison, Mildred Davis
The Gum Riot (1920) - Hank Mann, Madge Kirby, Vernon Dent
What a Night (1924) - Lige Conley, Otto Fries, Louise Carver

"Unsocialized Medicine: The Health Care Crisis"
Thurs Oct 7 at 4:30 & Thurs Oct 14 at 8:00

Bunny Backslides (1914) - John Bunny, Flora Finch
A Professional Patient (1917) - Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew
The Snow Cure (1916) - Alice Davenport, Ford Sterling, Slim Summerville, Bruno the bear
Naughty Nurses (1920) - Hank Mann, Madge Kirby, Vernon Dent.
Good Night Nurse (1929) - Lupino Lane, Wallace Lupino

"Class War: How the Other Half Lives"
Weds Oct 6 at 8:00 & Sun Oct 10 at 2:00

Bunny and the Bunny Hug (aka Bunny Dips Into Society) (1913) - John Bunny
Luke’s Shattered Sleep (1916) - Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, Snub Pollard
Time Flies (1926) - Lupino Lane, Wallace Lupino, Virginia Vance
Sweetie (1923) - Baby Peggy, Jerry Mandy, Louise Lorraine, Max Asher
The Vagrant (1921) - Lloyd Hamilton, Hugh Fay, Tom Wilson, Lige Conley

"The Surreal Life: Dallying with the Absurd"
Fri Oct 8 at 8:00 & Sat Oct 9 at 2:00

Some Hero (1916) - Manuel Fernandez Perez (aka Marcel Fabre), Babette Fabre (aka Nilde Barrachi)
A Schoolhouse Scandal (1919) - Slim Summerville, Ethel Teare, Tom Kennedy, Polly Moran
Kiss Me Quick (1920) - Clyde Cook, Bobby Dunn, Blanche Payson
All Wet (1922) - Al St. John, Otto Fries, Ford West
Egged On (1926) - Charley Bowers, Winifred Leighton

"Drag Shows"

2009-05-01T16:21:00.009-04:00

Wednesday, May 20 at 4:00

Drag Shows: Cross-Dressing the Sexes
Getting Rid of Trouble (1912) with Charlie Murray
Sweedie Learns to Swim (1914) with Wallace Beery
Chasing the Chaser (1925) with James Finlayson
Get ‘Em Young (1926) with Stan Laurel
Good Night Nurse (1917) with Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton
silent, with piano accompaniment by Ben Model

Men appearing in drag is a time-honored stage tradition that goes back to the Commedia dell' Arte and probably further. It was a staple of the English music hall and pantomimes, where some of the best practitioners like Stan Laurel and Syd Chaplin got their training. Today the use of drag carries all kinds of sexual and political ramifications, but on film in the ‘teen and 1920s it was used for its inherent physical silliness. John Epperson, the well-known drag performer Lypsinka, hosted our class version of this program and was surprised at how innocent and fun these silent comedy uses are. Drag was often set-up as a disguise (i.e. CHASING THE CHASER and GOOD NIGHT NURSE), or to provide a cartoon portrayal of large, ungainly women (i.e. GETTING RID OF TROUBLE and SWEEDIE LEARNS TO SWIM). At this point there’s no hint of actual transvestism or sexual thrill in the dressing up – it’s just an easy way to get laughs.

Getting Rid of Trouble (9/5/1912) Prod: Biograph Co. Dir: Del Henderson. Writ: William Acker. 1 reel. Cast: Charles Murray, Edward Dillon, Kathleen Butler, William J. Butler, W. Christie Miller, J. Waltham, Gus Alexander.

When Mack Sennett left the Biograph Company in mid-1912 to form his Keystone studio two of his regular performers, Del Henderson and Edward Dillon, were put in charge of comedy units. Turning out a steady stream of one-reelers they shared the stock company of Gus Pixley, Sylvia Ashton, David Morris and others, but the star in the majority of the shorts was Charlie Murray. Said to have started his stage career at age ten and worked his way up through circuses, not to mention pony and medicine shows, Murray hit big time vaudeville when he teamed with Ollie Mack and became an Irish Weber & Fields. The pair starred in successful shows like SHOOTING THE CHUTES and THE SUNNY SIDE OF BROADWAY, plus had been a team for over twenty years when they split in 1910. It didn’t take Charlie long to find his way into the infant film industry, and by 1912 he was one of the leading comics at Biograph. There he created his screen persona of the layabout Irishman named “Skelley,” which he essentially played for the rest of his career.

In 1914 Charlie migrated to Keystone, where his character was re-named “Hogan.” Working frequently with Louise Fazenda, Slim Summerville and Polly Moran, Murray was one of Sennett’s top stars until 1922, when he began freelancing in shorts and numerous features. In 1926 he was first teamed with comic George Sidney in the film THE COHENS AND THE KELLYS. Thinly adapted from the smash Broadway hit ABIE’S IRISH ROSE, its story of Irish and Jewish families struck comic pay dirt and spawned six sequels. Becoming a popular film team, he and Sidney were mismatched in many features and shorts. Although he made a good transition to sound Murray’s career slowed down in the 1930s. His last appearance was in the Eddie Cline directed feature BREAKING THE ICE (’38), and he passed away in 1941.

The tough Irish cook was a popular stereotype featured in tons of films, where it was usually played by someone like Kate Price. Murray’s very masculine bearing puts a funny spin on the cliché, and Del Henderson’s direction keeps the pace moving. Canadian-born Henderson was a long-time stage actor who switched to films in 1908 as part of the ensemble at Biograph. Originally more dramatic, he soon gravitated to comedy and in 1912 became a full-time comedy director. After Biograph he directed at Keystone, and by 1916 was helming features of all kind until THE RAMBLING RANGER in 1927. At this point he returned to acting, turning in excellent character performances in films such as THE PATSY, THE CROWD and SHOW PEOPLE (all ’28). Having made a smooth transition to sound he continued working until 1950.

This film is another of the many many Biograph films in MoMA's collection. Screening print is a 16mm reduction from preservation materials. We've screened a lot of the Del Henderson-directed Biograph comedies. Their comedic style tends to be somewhere between what one sees in a Biograph light drama and the sort of picture Sennett was beginning to turn out.

Sweedie Learns to Swim (10/12/1914) Prod: Essanay. Dir: (often credited to Wallace Beery). 1 reel. Cast: Wallace Beery, Leo White, Ben Turpin, Betty Brown.

Wallace Beery is remembered today for 1930s MGM classics such as THE CHAMP (’31) and GRAND HOTEL (’32), but much of his early film career was spent in silent slapstick. Coming from a background of circuses and the stage, in 1913 Beery began working for the Essanay Film Co. in Chicago, appearing in their GEORGE ADE FABLES and making his first mark in this series as a big lummox Swedish girl. In 1914 and 1915 about 29 episodes of Sweedie’s misadventures were filmed, with Beery directing as well as starring. Soon Essanay sent him to their Niles, California studio to replace Roy Clements as director of the last leg of their Snakeville Comedies.

When the Niles plant closed Beery worked briefly for Mack Sennett, and then moved over to Universal where he directed and starred in Victor and Nestors, in addition to helming Carter De Haven’s “TIMOTHY DOBBS, THAT’S ME” comedy series. By the late Teens his comedy skills gave him the opportunity to break into features as a busy character actor, and the arrival of sound made him more popular than ever and solidified his screen persona of the loveable rogue. His comedy chops continued to come in handy, especially in his teamings with Marie Dressler and Marjorie Main.

In support of Beery are a youngish Leo White and Ben Turpin, who were part of the ensemble at the Chicago Essanany studio. A couple of years later they would both be taken to California by Charlie Chaplin after he used them in his first Essanany short HIS NEW JOB (’15). Turpin of course went on to become one of the big comedy stars of the 1920s, and Leo an indispensible part of silent comedy, working everywhere with everybody, continuing right up to his death in 1948.

As was mentioned elsewhere in the notes for this series, films in an archives' collection are not necessarily always 35mm prints struck of nitrate camera negatives. Collectors prints get donated to archives (Walter Kerr's 16mm collection resides with Eastman House, for instance) and sometimes what may be available on a film is a 16mm print sold to the home market. This print is one sold by Blackhawk Films, and is complete and a pretty good print all things considered. Blackhawk Films is greatly responsible for hooking film buffs and collectors on silents – by making these films available decades before home video existed.

Chasing the Chaser (7/5/1925) Prod: Hal Roach. Dir: Stan Laurel. Dist: Pathe. Writ: Laurel & James Parrott. Photo: Art Lloyd. 2 reels. Cast: James Finlayson, Fred Kovert, Lyle Tayo, William Gillespie, Fay Wray, Jackie “Husky” Haines.

In 1925 producer Hal Roach decided to give supporting comic James Finlayson a big build up and star him in his own vehicles. CHASING THE CHASER was one of the first, and others such as YES, YES NANETTE, UNFRIENDLY ENEMIES and MOONLIGHT AND NOSES (all ’25) had Stan Laurel firmly behind the scenes as director and writer. Probably the ultimate screen sourpuss, Finlayson was born in Scotland and entered show business at an early age touring the British Isles and music halls. Hooking up with the company of Sir Harry Lauder’s brother Alec, Jimmy’s big stage success was in Graham Moffat’s play BUNTY PULLS THE STRINGS. BUNTY brought Fin to America, running for 18 months on Broadway, and afterward he toured vaudeville which brought him to California.

He gave films a try in 1916, working for Thomas Ince and in comedies at L-Ko, Century and Arrow. By 1919 Jimmy made his way to Mack Sennett comedies, where in shorts like MA AND PA (’22) he specialized in comic villains. In 1923 he moved over to Hal Roach and fulfilled a similar function for Snub Pollard and Stan Laurel. Although Fin didn’t take off as a star after his big build up, he settled at the top of the supporting comics heap, and was indispensable in the Roach comedies, particularly with Laurel & Hardy. He even found time to appear as support in some First National features like the hilarious LADIES NIGHT IN A TURKISH BATH (’28). Sound revealed his Scottish burr, which only seemed to make him more irascible and blustery. Continuing in the Roach product, Fin also appeared in shorts at RKO and many features into the 1940s. He retired, due to ill health, a few years before his death in 1953.

Co-starring with Fin in this film as the detective in drag is Fred Kovert (a.k.a. Frederick Ko Vert), an interesting and overlooked figure. A female impersonator and dancer in vaudeville, in addition to gracing sheet music cover photos, Kovert made his film debut in AN ADVENTURESS (’20 - a.k.a. ISLE OF LOVE) where he starred opposite the most famous female impersonator of the day, Julian Eltinge. Although he originally appeared in dramatic films Kovert moved into silent comedies such as Ben Turpin’s THE REEL VIRGINIAN (’24), STARVATION BLUES (’25) with Clyde Cook, and the Bert Lytell feature THE FIRST NIGHT (’27). For Larry Semon’s THE WIZARD OF OZ (’25) Kovert not only does a bizarre turn as “the Phantom of the Basket,” but designed all the costumes as well. After his movie days, he opened a photography studio and became “Kovert of Hollywood,” a pioneer in male physique photography. Said to have had much trouble with the LAPD’s vice squad, Kovert shot and killed himself in 1949.

Every once in a while one of these rare comedies turns up in 35mm with complete original main and intertitles, and this film is one of them, listing complete credits (direction by Stan, photography by Art Lloyd, etc.), giving us a chance to see the film just as audiences did in its original release, in terms of visual quality and completeness.

Get ‘Em Young (10/31/1926) Prod: Hal Roach. Dir: Fred Guiol. Dist: Pathe. Writ: Hal Yates, James Parrot & Stan Laurel. Photo: Harry Gersted. Titles: H.M. Walker. 2 reels. Cast: Harry Myers, Eugenia Gilbert, Stan Laurel, Max Davidson, Charlotte Mineau, Fred Malatesta, James T. Kelly, Mickey Bennett, Monty Collins.

In 1926 producer Hal Roach hit upon the idea of hiring established feature film stars to appear in, and thereby give class to, his two-reel comedies. This was similar to a scheme used by Harry Aitken back in 1915 when he sought out big stage stars for Triangle films, but of course the only feature stars that Roach could get a hold of were past their prime. On top of that, with the exception of Mabel Normand and Harry Myers, the rest – Theda Bara, Priscilla Dean, Lionel Barrymore, Herbert Rawlinson, Agnes Ayres – were all dramatic performers with no experience in sight gag comedy. Roach’s solution was to have the bulk of the physical business fall to his regular crew of clowns such as James Finalyson, Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, etc., or as he told Motion Picture News: “People asked me why I tried to make Theda Bara a comedienne. The answer is: I didn’t. I surrounded her with a comedy and her name appeared in electric lights.” Although name star Harry Myers had a long career in silent comedy, in GET ‘EM YOUNG most of the comedic heavy lifting is still done by Stan Laurel, with help from Max Davidson.

This was Laurel’s third sojourn at the Roach studio. After years spent in the English music hall and American vaudeville stage, Stan stuck his first toe into the cinematic waters in 1917 and in addition to Roach bounced around to Universal, Vitagraph, Metro, and Joe Rock. Never really settling onto a specific character his early films were usually built around occupations or popular movie parodies. By 1926 Stan was primarily working behind the scenes at Roach writing and directing. GET ‘EM YOUNG is a milestone as it brought him back in front of the camera again. He was originally set to direct, but when Babe Hardy had an accident Stan took over the role. Soon they were appearing together and film history was made.

Harry Myers, chiefly remembered today as the drunken millionaire in Chaplin’s CITY LIGHTS (’31), spent ten years on the stage before he entered films in 1910 as a leading man with the Lubin company. Soon switching to comedies and directing his own films, by 1914 he teamed up with (and soon married) actress Rosemary Theby. Becoming popular in a series of polite one and two-reelers, they moved to Universal, Vim, and Pathe. Sadly these domestic situational comedies are virtually impossible to see today. In the 1920s Myers moved into starring vehicles such as A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT (’21) and THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE (’22) , but by the end of the decade his career had waned and, after his brief regeneration in CITY LIGHTS, he declined to walk-ons in sound films until his death in 1938.

As always Max Davidson supplies a large number of laughs with his repertoire of shrugs, lifted eyebrows, and tilts of the head that conveyed the mounting frustrations of his put upon characters. After years of stage and movie work Max started coming into his own in 1925 when he co-starred with Jackie Coogan in the features THE RAG MAN and OLD CLOTHES. Hired by Hal Roach to support stars like Charley Chase and Mabel Normand, he soon got his own starring series where he was able to take the stereotypical Jewish tailors and merchants he specialized in and flesh them out a bit, while at the same time creating a screen family with excellent players like Lillian Elliott, Spec O’ Donnell, and Martha Sleeper.

This film survives in better shape elsewhere – check out disc 2 of the Kino/Lobster Stan Laurel Collection Vol. 2, where the film is seen in a sharp print (although it's been transferred too slow) with its original intertitles recreated for video – making this another opportunity to demonstrate the variety of prints on an extant comedy short. Screening print is a 16mm reduction from a print with flash titles. The basic plot, outlined in reel one, is a bit tricky to follow without the titles, and at the showing we will clue everyone in on the set-up.

Good Night Nurse (7/6/1918) Comique Film Corp. Prod: Joseph M. Schenck. Dir/Writ: Roscoe Arbuckle. Dist: Paramount. Photo: George Peters. 2 reels. Cast: Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Al St John, Alice Lake, Kate Price, Dan Albert.

By 1916, with shorts like FATTY AND MABEL ADRIFT and HE DID AND HE DIDN’T, Roscoe Arbuckle was one of the most skillful comedy creators and directors on the Keystone roster. To continue to develop, artistically and financially, Arbuckle left Sennett and signed with producer Joseph M. Schenck, who set up the Comique Film Corp. to make shorts that would be released through Paramount. While Roscoe’s later Sennett films had become more sophisticated, for his Comique shorts he returned to roughhouse on such a grand scale that they became veritable slapstick ballets. Having brought nephew Al St John along with him from Keystone, Arbuckle added former vaudevillian Buster Keaton to the mix, and with the three best tumblers in the business many of the ensuing shorts seem like a contest to see who can top who.

GOOD NIGHT, NURSE is one of the most surreal of the Comiques. Possibly Arbuckle’s recent experiences with a nasty leg carbuncle may have fueled some of this nightmarish take on sanitariums. Skilled as a drag performer from his days on stage Roscoe often found ways to work in it into his films, usually as a disguise to elude irate husbands or his overbearing wife, although in films such as MISS FATTY’S SEASIDE LOVERS (’15) he plays an actual female character and gives Marie Dressler and Merta Sterling a run for their money. In addition to his drag routine Arbuckle also recycles a gag with a garden hose from his early Keystone A NOISE FROM THE DEEP (’13), and uses a climatic footrace that would be repeated six years later when he directed Al St John in STUPID BUT BRAVE (’24). The title was a popular one for silent comedy shorts as “Smiling Billy” Mason used it in 1913, Neal Burns in 1916, Alice Howell in 1920, and Lupino Lane in 1929.

The regular Comique crew of Keaton, Al St John and Alice Lake are on hand. Buster would do one more short with Arbuckle (THE COOK) before he ended up in the army, spending most of his time entertaining the troops. Al St John would go out on his own in 1919 in shorts for Paramount/Warners and Fox, and in 1924 dropped his country boob character to become the clean-cut (but still bumbling) man-about-town or young hubby in shorts for Reel Comedies,Inc. and Jack White. Of course in the mid-30s he grew a beard and got rid of his teeth to become sidekick “Fuzzy Q. Jones” in tons of western oaters. Irish character comedian Kate Price turns up like she did in THE WAITER’S BALL (’16), so that Roscoe can wear her clothes. In a long career that included work at Vitagraph, Edison and Vim, she did countless features and was actually the real-life older sister of Al Christie’s “foxy grandpa” comic Jack Duffy.

Probably one of the greatest of Roscoe's "Comique" series (1917-1920), this title survives in a print in the Danish Film Archive, and which this one is made from. The Rohauer/Douris prints on this title are off the Danish print as well, although in the circulating Rohauer prints (and the video edition of this film) some of the intertitle text has been reworded and some titles are left out completely – like the one in which Dr. Buster explains to patient Roscoe that the reason Alice Lake keeps twirling her arms around manically is that she believes she is a windmill.

"Race Riots"

2009-05-01T16:20:00.005-04:00

Wednesday, May 27 at 4:00
Race Riots: Beyond Black and White

Black and White (1913) with David Morris
A Change of Complexion (1914) with Henry Bergman.

Haunted Spooks (1920) with Harold Lloyd, Sunshine Sammy
Below Zero (1925) with Lige Conley, Spencer Bell
A Natural Born Gambler (1916) with Bert Williams
silent, with piano accompaniment by Ben Model

In the very early days of cinema it was the norm to have white actors wear blackface to portray black characters. Although an embarrassment today, this practice was a holdover from the stage, whose traditions of minstrel shows and vaudeville had a huge effect on silent film comedy. At that time practically all of the black characters shown on screen were subservient, shuffling, and superstitious. By the 1920s real black performers had mostly taken over these roles, but they remained demeaning and stereotypes. This program gives us a variety of the ways that silent comedy used black characters and performers. BLACK AND WHITE is an example of white actors in blackface. A CHANGE OF COMPLEXION shows characters being blackened up without their knowledge, which was a re-occurring theme in these films. Sometimes the aftermath of an explosion, or absent-mindedly wiping their face with a greasy rag, etc. –– the resulting embarrassment and confusion was a standard laugh producer. HAUNTED SPOOKS and BELOW ZERO showcase two popular black performers. The first is Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison who, non-threatening because he was a child, became the closest thing to a black silent movie star, while Spencer Bell specialized in the subservient sidekick, but still found ways to get legitimate laughs. Finally, A NATURAL BORN GAMBLER captures on film the phenomenon of Bert Williams, the black comic who was able to transcend stereotypes and make tremendous progress in the white stage and recording worlds.

Black and White (8/28/1913) Prod: Biograph Co. Dir: Del Henderson. Writ: William Beaudine. 1 reel. Cast: David Morris, Clarence Barr, Sylvia Ashton.

Today the Biograph Studio is remembered for D. W. Griffith, and as the place where Mack Sennett, Mary Pickford, Blanche Sweet and the Gish sisters got their start. When anyone discusses the beginnings of American film comedy they’ll often mention Griffith’s THE CURTAIN POLE ('09), but then skip to the formation of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studio. The truth is that before Keystone, Sennett had his own comedy unit at Biograph where he laid the foundation for his later work and success.

Griffith began directing for Biograph in 1908, and in order to provide a well-rounded program of films had to turn out comedies as well as dramas. Since he was never interested in comedy, by 1910 a unit was set up for comedies under the direction of Frank Powell, leaving Griffith free for dramas. Sennett became one of the main players and assistants on the Powell comedies, and when Powell left the studio Sennett inherited the unit. When Sennett himself left in 1912, his right-hand men Del Henderson and Edward Dillon got their directing break.

Henderson and Dillon did a wide variety of subjects, including a number of comedies such as A RAG-TIME ROMANCE, MISTER JEFFERSON GREEN, and COME SEBEN, LEBEN (all '13) that were set in an area referred to as "Dark Town," or even worse "Coonville," with white actors in blackface playing the denizens. BLACK AND WHITE is a bit different since it concerns a white hobo who mistreats his black manservant. Although the black characters are still played by whites in make-up, at least this film has elements of social commentary with the black servant coming out on top and turning the tables on his abusive "master." Actually it’s the black woman who's the cleverest character and masterminds taking the white man down a few pegs.

The cast features two neglected silent comedy performers – David Morris, who plays the mean white man, and Sylvia Ashton as the black woman. Ashton was a heavy-set, matronly actress who after working on the stage began her movie career at Biograph working for Sennett and Henderson. She also worked in the early days for Nestor, Komic Comedies, and Bison. In the late Teens she made her way to Keystone for shorts like HER FAME AND SHAME ('17), and moved into features such as Cecil B. DeMille's OLD WIVES FOR NEW ('18). Very busy in the 1920s playing mothers and aunts (she was known as “Mother Ashton” at the studios), one of her most memorable roles was as Mama Sieppe opposite Chester Conklin in Erich von Stroheim’s GREED (’24). She retired due to ill health at the end of the silent era. The pop-eyed and often manic David Morris was a supporting comic who specialized in eccentrics, and started in films at Selig in 1912. His varied stage background included stints with Cohan and Harris, Klaw and Erlanger, George W. Lederer, and Singer Amusement Co. During 1912 to 1914 Morris was in residence at Biograph usually playing older characters such as fathers, uncles, and bosses. After Biograph he made the rounds to practically every unit that was making comedies – Keystone, Kalem, L-Ko, Christie, Universal and Fox Sunshine. By the mid-1920s he’d settled in at the Sennett studio where he kept busy supporting the likes of Billy Bevan and Ben Turpin. Sadly, despite his stage experience, Morris didn’t transfer well to sound pictures and ended up being demoted to uncredited bit roles, which he did until 1949.

We chose this film because of its being so early and because of its use of blackface for two of its main characters. There is a great deal made of "status", i.e. who is in charge and who is subservient. Morris browbeats Barr, but when Barr befriends Ashton the cook, she does the same to Morris, hitting him with the whip. Notice also the hand-held pies, slid out of their metal pan and then held and eaten like a large sandwich.

Like many of the Biograph shorts in the MoMA collection, this print is missing its titles; each spot where a title should go has a couple frames of black with the word "title". What the text is that should go in place of these "slug" frames is not known. The upside, though, is that MoMA's material on these films is strikingly sharp and from original Biograph materials, printed on the Biograph printer itself. The film's few and simple set-ups make this a performance-driven picture, and relies heavily on the actors explaining things to each other, and sometimes to us, before and after they do them. Notice the Biograph "AB" logo in the background, on the side of the house in some shots. By 1913, studio's placing their logo on the sets was seen less and less, so it's interesting to spot it here.

A Change of Complexion (5/26/1914) Prod: Crystal Film Co. Dir: Phillips Smalley. Dist: Universal. ½ reel. Cast: Vivian Prescott, Henry Bergman, Caroline Rankin.

Crystal Films was a small company that distributed through Universal. Most of their split-reel and one-reel comedies were written and directed by Phillips Smalley, the partner and husband of woman film pioneer Lois Weber. In addition to the more slap sticky one-shot comedies like this one or HOW MOSCHA CAME BACK (’14), Crystal also produced a series of polite situational comedies that starred Pearl White, before she became “Queen of the Serials,” and Chester Barnett. A huge number were made from 1912 to 1914, and actually spun off another group, the “Baldy” Belmont series. Joseph “Baldy” Belmont was a long-time stage veteran who often wore a toupee, and would frequently lose his flip-top for comic effect. The Belmonts ran in 1913 and 1914 where he was teamed with Vivian Prescott who plays the disgruntled cook in this film. The Manhattan-based Crystal closed up shop in 1914.

It’s quite a surprise to see Henry Bergman as one of the leads here, as he’s become so synonymous with the film universe of Charlie Chaplin. The German-born Bergman had much experience in opera and comedy before entering films, appearing in twenty-three Broadway shows, many of them musicals such as THE YANKEE GIRL (’10) with Blanche Ring. His first films were for Pathe and Universal, and he appeared in other Crystal comedies such as WILLIE’S DIGUISE (’14). When Henry “Pathe” Lehrman set up his L-Ko comedy company later that year Bergman was part of the original supporting ensemble for star comic Billie Ritchie, in addition to starring in occasional outings like THE BLIGHTED SPANIARD or THE BARON’S BEAR ESCAPE (both ’14). He remained with L-Ko into 1916 when he left to join Chaplin, becoming his screen support, assistant director and confidant until his death in 1946.

Bergman’s wife is played by Caroline Rankin, who billed herself as “The Thinnest Woman on the Screen.” Her stick figure frame paired with Bergman’s 300 plus pounds makes the perfect “Jack Spratt and his Wife” combination. Also known as “Spike,” Rankin was a silent comedy regular who supported everyone from Lloyd Hamilton to Max Linder, working in tons of shorts as well as features. The name star of A CHANGE OF COMPLEXION is Vivian Prescott, although she exits early after setting up the comic situation, who was featured in many Crystal shorts, often teamed with Charlie De Forrest. A child stage actress who starred in hit shows such as A CHILD OF THE REGIMENT ('07) and SAL THE CIRCUS GAL (’09), Prescott entered films in 1909 for the Biograph company. While there she worked for D.W. Griffith and Frank Powell, although her best roles came with Mack Sennett in shorts like THE MANICURE LADY (’11) and WITH A KODAK (’12). After a couple of years she went to Lubin and Imp before landing at Crystal, who publicized her as “The Refined and Cyclonic Comedienne” (which seems to cover all the bases). After marriage she left the screen and disappeared from the public eye in 1917.

This was another one of the surprises we had in the screening process, both for spotting Bergman and because we were so surprised by the prank that Bergman and Rankin's characters play on one another. Steve and I were so stunned by its outrageousness the first time we saw it – especially when Bergman runs out into the street and people begin pelting him with snowballs (??!!) – we ran it again. Our guest speaker for the class, filmmaker and historian Donald Pruden, pointed out the the gist of the prank played is about social hierarchy. The subservient maid is chided by her employers for associating with the visiting actor (someone from the theater being socially beneath her). Her revenge on her employers is to put them in a place socially beneath even an actor...someone who is black. It's not certain as to where this film was made, either Chicago or NYC/Bronx, probably the former.

Haunted Spooks (3/31/1920) Prod: Hal Roach. Dir: Roach & Alf Goulding. Dist: Pathe. Photo: Walter Lundin. Titles: H. M. Walker. 2 reels. Cast: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Wallace Howe, William Gillespie, “Sunshine Sammy” Morrison, Edgar Blue.

Ernest Fredric Morrison, better known as Sunshine Sammy, was the son of a chef and born in 1912. Entering films in 1917, he gained a good deal of attention as the comic relief in a number of Pathe features that starred Baby Marie Osborne. Sammy’s popularity quickly grew and in 1918 he appeared in the Roscoe Arbuckle two-reeler THE SHERIFF, and possibly a few starring shorts of his own. The 8/24/1918 Motion Picture News reported:

“The first two-reel Pathe-Diando Comedy featuring the little negro who is known as Sunshine Sammy has been completed under the direction of Walter McNamara, and is titled “Black Cupid.”

Hal Roach signed him in 1919, making Sammy the first black performer to be signed to a long term Hollywood contract, and outside of his future Our Gang cohort Farina, possibly the only black silent comedy star. Black stage comic Bert Williams had starred in only a couple of shorts before his early death in 1922, and although talented black adult comics turn up in supporting roles in tons of shorts they were rarely given anything to do but be scared or whip out dice to shoot craps with. But on the Roach lot Sammy was allowed to be what he really was – a tough, smart kid with an infectious personality and smile. Most of his time was spent giving Snub Pollard, Eddie Boland and Paul Parrott a run for their money. Even Harold Lloyd was no match for Sammy’s crack comic timing as can be seen in this short and GET OUT AND GET UNDER ('20).

In 1922 the Roach studio created Our Gang by surrounding Sammy with other talented kids and focusing on their feelings and take on the world. Of course the series became an instant hit and became one of the studio’s mainstays until Roach sold the franchise to MGM in 1938. Sammy’s last Our Gang comedy was CRADLE ROBBERS (’24), when he left the movies to headline in his own vaudeville act. Billed as “Sunshine Sammy – Our Gang star,” he sang and danced his way across the country before returning to Hollywood in 1940 to spend three years as part of another gang – the East Side Kids. After a number of cheaply-made adventures like SPOOKS RUN WILD (’41) and CLANCY STREET BOYS (’43), Sammy joined the army and entertained troops during World War II as part of the USO. Later leaving show business, he spent the last part of his life being feted for his con tributions to black film history.

Print being screened is a good 16mm, possibly from British materials, and which was an edition that has circulated widely among collectors for years, and sold by Blackhawk Films for the home market. It is complete and while the intertitles are not from the original release they are from some silent-era issue and the text is the same as the original film. Interesting to note that, in spite of all the stereotypically frightened black characters in the film, it is Sunshine Sammy who becomes Lloyd's ally and helps him out of his troubles. The negative black stereotype that is the core of the ruse perpetrated by the lawyer – that black men are easily frightened into a panic by ghosts – is now so old it's hard to comprehend as having even been funny in the first place, and what remains is that we just know that it's wrong to find this funny now. By the way, that bridge Lloyd stands on to shoot himself in reel one still stands today, in Echo Park...although if you visit you'll find it's locked off by a locked gate. (Did someone from L.A.'s parks dept see this film?)

Below Zero (7/7/1925) Prod: Jack White. Dir: Norman Taurog. Dist: Educational Pictures. 2 reels. Cast: Lige Conley, Estelle Bradley, Spencer Bell, Robert Kortman, Robert Graves, Bert Young.

Working in comedy shorts was a thankless and often physically dangerous occupation for black comics in silent pictures. Stereotyped roles, skimpy pay, hazardous stunts, and little recognition was their lot in life. In the 'teens there was a company called Ebony Films that made comedies with black casts, and later a group called the Custard Nine, but for the most part the black performers were on their own and at the mercy of the white industry. The following comment from Jack White (The White Brothers, DGA 1990), one of the biggest comedy producers of the 1920s, gives a good picture of how they were treated:

“We always had one or two black actors. It just happened that way. There was no problem about it. I had some blacks that were funnier than the whites. They were real funsters. They didn’t know they were funny, but I knew it. I paid them $75 a week to be a janitor and an actor. They were working all the time and had a check every Saturday night.”

Some of the “funsters” that White refers to includes Ray Turner, Edgar Blue, Curtis McHenry, and Henry Trice, but perhaps the most high-profiled of this group was Spencer Bell. Coming from a background of minstrel shows and vaudeville, Bell appeared on the Hollywood scene in the early 1920s, and had most of his best opportunities working with Larry Semon and Lige Conley. Despite having to work within the stereotype of “scared darkey,” Bell had frequent chances to show his stuff – extreme athleticism, split-second timing, and the funniest legwork in pictures. Sometimes when working with Conley he’s practically the co-star, but there was never any focus on him in the Educational press sheets – he’s always “and Spencer Bell the funny colored man of these comedies.” Jack White remembered:

“The one who appeared the most was Spencer Bell. He could imitate a mule kick. Norman Taurog gave him the nickname “Thou” because he was always quoting the Scripture.”

His character name in the White comedies was usually “Moonlight,” the ones in the Semon comedies were worse – “Snowball” or “G. Howe Black.” Bell appeared everywhere - shorts for Fox and Sennett, plus features such as THE OUTLAW DOG (’27), THE PEACOCK FAN (’29), and SMART MONEY (’31). He passed away young in 1935.

In preparing our playlists for the class edition of this 5-session series, we had intended to show this, but wound up cutting one film off each program to allow time for discussion, and so this short was not screened as part of the course. When this public screening edition of the series allowed us to put titles back in, this one went right back on this program. There are a few Lige Conley shorts where Spencer Bell is his sidekick and the two are almost a team, and in which Spencer is not doing crazy fright gags or playing dice, etc (see also FAST AND FURIOUS...click on the link to watch an edition with a score by Ben Model on YouTube). BELOW ZERO is one of these "team" shorts with Conley and Bell, and we wanted to include to show that, if only occasionally, there was some balance.

A Natural Born Gambler (7/24/1916) Prod: Biograph Co. Dir/Writ: (often credited to Bert Williams). 2 reels. Cast: Bert Williams, Sam Lucas, Billy Harper.

Bert Williams was the first black media star – popular on stage and in recordings as a comedian, singer, and writer. Initially making his name as part of the team of Williams & Walker in all black shows like IN DAHOMEY (’02) and ABYSSERIA (’06), after Walker’s early death William’s broke the color barrier by becoming a regular comic in the all-white Ziegfeld Follies along with the likes of W.C. Fields, Will Rogers, Leon Errol and Eddie Cantor.

His Follies and recording success led to a movie offer from the Biograph Company in 1916. Sadly only two shorts – A NATURAL BORN GAMBLER and FISH (’16) – were released before the company went under, but both are fascinating records of a great clown, with GAMBLER capturing his famous pantomimed poker game routine. Biograph had also begun shooting a feature starring Williams that was left unfinished when the studio folded, the rushes of which have been preserved by MoMA. Using many of the same players and sets as GAMBLER, this elaborate production would have been the first full-length film to star a black comic, not to mention presenting him as the hero of the piece.

Williams left the Follies in 1919, and appeared with Eddie Cantor in BROADWAY BREVITIES (’20). In 1921 -22 he starred in a tour of UNDER THE BAMBOO TREE. After his Biograph shorts other film projects were announced for him, but none seem to have come to fruition. Williams died of pneumonia while touring in UNDER THE BAMBOO TREE on March 4, 1922.

This new (2007) 35mm print is made off the 35mm nitrate camera neg, and has its original tints in place. If you've only seen this film on video or on any other print, you will be amazed...not only by the image quality on this subject but in Williams' superbly comic, underplayed, character-driven performance. You can easily see the line of his wig on his forehead, and where the blackface he wears (although not all the performers in the film wear it) begins and ends. Between this film and FISH, and listening to the many recordings Williams made, we can assemble in our minds an idea of what he might have been like in performance. Here's a streaming audio file of one of Williams' recordings of "Nobody" (found at archive.org)

"Gratuitous Violence"

2009-05-01T16:19:00.017-04:00

Wednesday, May 27 at 7:00

Gratuitous Violence: No Turn Unstoned

Their First Execution (1913) with Ford Sterling
The Phoney Cannibal (1915) with Lloyd Hamilton, Bud Duncan
The Counter Jumper (1922) with Larry Semon, Oliver Hardy
A Deep Sea Panic (1924) with James Parrott
Cold Hearts and Hot Flames (1916) with Billie Ritchie
Silent, with piano accompaniment by Ben Model.

Gratuitous violence is a part of practically every slapstick comedy, but the films in this program take this basic ingredient and run with it. Using extreme physical stunts, impossible sight-gags, and breakneck pacing, they create a mad, surreal universe rarely seen outside of an animated cartoon. Chicanery, false imprisonment, and rampant seasickness are all on the menu. Master carpenter Mack Sennett starts us off with THEIR FIRST EXECUTION, which explores the recreational uses of the electric chair, and is followed by Ham & Bud, the Burke and Hare of silent comedy, up to no good in THE PHONEY CANNIBAL. THE COUNTER JUMPER and A DEEP SEA PANIC take us to the alternate universes of Larry Semon and director Roy Del Ruth, and for the finale we finish up with the cutting edge comedy of Billie Ritchie in COLD HEARTS AND HOT FLAMES. When we did the series as a course at MoMA, our guest speaker was vaudeville historian and variety performer Trav S.D., author of No Applause Just Throw Money, the Book that Made Vaudeville Famous.

Their First Execution (5/15/1913) Prod & Dir: Mack Sennett. 1 reel. Cast: Sennett, Ford Sterling, Raymond Hatton, Nick Cogley, Edgar Kennedy, Joseph Swickard, Glen Cavender, Rube Miller, Charles Avery, Bill Hauber, Dave Anderson.

This short gives us a good look at Ford Sterling, Keystone’s first break-out star, who got so big that he left for his own company in 1914. Today the majority of silent comedy aficionados and scholars scratch their heads on the subject of Sterling. Seen now as a joke that’s lost its original context, much of what he was about was a spoof on well-known melodramatic cliches and characters, so his exaggerated, semaphore-like gestures and huge faces were accepted as parody. When viewed today Sterling’s broad comedy works best in extreme situations – say, when he’s surrounded by a roomful of snakes, hanging for dear life onto a safe that’s been dynamited into orbit, or when, as in this film, he’s strapped into an electric chair.

This early one-reeler was a nice surprise for us during the screening process. Not only is it a really nice print, but the idea of death in the electric chair as a source of humor – the chair had been in use since 1890 – was something we'd not seen in slapstick comedies. Some of the sets, especially that of the prison cell, have the look of the Melies workshop about them, and Keystone fans will recognize some of the exteriors.

Their First Execution is seen here in a very nice, complete 35mm print of WWI-era re-release – note the titles show the company name is "Liberty Films". For many years, circulating prints of Mabel's Dramatic Career were from this series of reissues. Made in 1913, the performers are still relying on explaining things to each other (and us) before doing them as part of the storytelling language, and are still moving in a manner borrowed from the stage and not quite adapted to being shown faster-than-real-time, and some of these play better at 20fps and some at 21fps. We've looked at this at both speeds and are running it at 21fps (after running it at 20fps in the class). The 1913 Arbuckle shorts THE GANGSTERS and A NOISE FROM THE DEEP, which were a part of the Arbuckle retro we did in 2006, were shown at 20fps.

Mack Sennett liked to portray himself as a country boob or an unsophisticated ex-boilermaker. Many of his former employees later played along with this myth, practically painting him as some kind of film comedy idiot savant. The truth is that Sennett had much experience in different levels of show business before he even entered the movies. He learned filmmaking from D.W. Griffith and Frank Powell, and for about 20 years was a savvy producer who had his finger on the pulse of what audiences found funny (or at least his derriere, as it was said that if he rocked in his rocking chair while previewing a film it was funny – if he didn’t, it wasn’t).

Sennett’s major accomplishment was that he took the principles of the early French comedies and set up the first assembly-line to mass-produce Hollywood slapstick shorts. There he created the template for the genre and established most of the big comics of the era, almost all of whom eventually left him for greater fame and larger salaries.

The Phoney Cannibal (4/27/1915) Prod: Kalem. Dir: Chance E. Ward. 1 reel. Cast: Lloyd Hamilton, Bud Duncan, Marin Sais, Wesley Barry, Charles Inslee, Martin Kinney.

The Kalem Company started Lloyd Hamilton and Bud Duncan as “Ham and Bud” in their series of Ham Comedies in 1914. Hamilton came from Lubin and Frontier, Bud Duncan from Nestor, Biograph and Apollo. They were first used as support for Ruth Roland and Marshall Neilan, but were stealing so much attention and footage that Kalem gave them their own shorts.

In more than 100 one-reelers from late 1914 into 1917, the pair played tramps whose only distinguishing characteristic was that one was a big scuzzy bum and the other a little scuzzy bum. Rough and primitive, their hearts were filled with murder and mayhem, plus they were always ready and able to knife each other in the back. Since their shorts were ground out like sausages many of them are nondescript, but occasionally a keen sense of surrealism bubbles to the surface making Ham and Bud classics like THE PHONEY CANNIBAL, HAM AND THE SAUSAGE FACTORY ('15) and A SAUERKRAUT SYMPHONY ('16) great fun today.

When the series came to an end in 1917, Lloyd Hamilton moved over to Fox Sunshine Comedies, then waddled on to great success at Educational in the 1920s. Things didn’t go as well for Bud Duncan, who spent much of the rest of his career making cheapies for independent concerns like National Film Corp., Reelcraft and Weiss Brothers.

The Phoney Cannibal is a gorgeous 35mm print, with all original main and intertitles and is complete all the way to the end, including the animated Kalem spider logo. There are some great exterior scenes, and clearly local townspeople have been recruited for the two or three crowd scenes. There are actually many, many of these Ham & Bud shorts extant, a majority of them in 16mm prints made for the home market. A H&B short that looks this good and is as funny as this one is (although appreciation of Ham & Bud can be an acquired taste) made it a definite for our playlist for the series.

The Counter Jumper (12/9/1922) Prod: Vitagraph. Dir: Larry Semon. Photo: Reggie Lyons. AD: Joe Basil. 2 reels. Cast: Semon, Lucille Carlisle, Oliver Hardy, William McCall, Fred DeSilva, Jack Duffy, Al Thompson, Bill Hauber, Eva Thatcher, Spencer Bell, Burt Young.

Look up “silent movie clown” in the dictionary and you’re liable to find Larry Semon’s picture. The heavy white make-up on his horse face that made him look like a slapstick version of Nosferatu, the wind-up toy movements, the clodhopper shoes, bowler hat and chest-high balloon trousers – all of the above merged together in the character of a happy dumbbell caught up in a whirlwind of chaos.

As a director the plots of Semon’s films were just excuses to set his gags in motion. THE COUNTER JUMPER is from his peak of popularity – the early 1920s – when he was second only to Chaplin and Arbuckle, and his fondness for explosions, chases, crashes, and spectacular falls from high places, created a mad, surreal world.

Sadly, Semon is generally overlooked and sometimes derided today because his most accessible films happen to be from his later after-his-prime period. In the early '20s he was one of the kings of the comedy short, but when Chaplin, Lloyd and Keaton moved into features Larry decided that he should too. Although he tried to adapt his screen persona it proved too one-dimensional and he wasn’t able to develop strong feature-length storylines. Always working hard and spending freely on his pictures, when he slipped in audience favor he panicked and began repeating his old gags ad nauseum, which eventually bankrupted him financially and emotionally, leading to a nervous breakdown and his death from tuberculosis in 1928.

The Counter Jumper does not survive elsewhere, and while the very beginning as well as the last minute or so of this film are missing in this print, this is a very sharp 35mm print and nice to see on a Semon title. The titles are not flashed and so if you understand Czech you'll be able to read them. Even if you can't, you'll still be able to follow the thin plot of this picture. We're running this at 24fps, ideal speed for any Larry Semon film, which are really like live-action cartoons. They're nearly 1-dimensional in story, and a lot of the gags are reliant on speed and how much (or little) they're undercranked.

A Deep Sea Panic (9/29/1924) Prod: Fox. Dir: Roy Del Ruth. 2 reels. Cast: James Parrott, Mildred June, Kalla Pasha, Bobby Burns, Hilliard Karr, Jerry Mandy, Cameo.

A DEEP SEA PANIC is a classic example of the “everything but the kitchen sink” school of silent slapstick. As a rule the Fox studio liked to make their comedies “big,”and director Roy Del Ruth was the right man for the job. Remembered today for fast-paced Warner Brothers sound pictures like TAXI! and BLESSED EVENT (both’32), Del Ruth was the brother of the Sennett Studio’s general manager Hampton Del Ruth and entered films as a gagman there. When his brother took over Fox Sunshine Comedies Roy began directing shorts in 1920 and later returned to Sennett to helm comedies with Billy Bevan and Harry Langdon. Del Ruth liked his comedies fast and furious, and A DEEP SEA PANIC is very representative of his style. In 1925 he moved into features when he hooked up with Warner Brothers, piloting titles like HAM AND EGGS AT THE FRONT (’27 ) and BLONDE CRAZY (’31). Later he moved to Fox and MGM, then back to Warners, and directed a lot of television in the early 1950s. His last feature, before his death in 1961, was the cult classic THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE (’59).

This film is actually a remake of SHANGHAIED LOVERS (’24), a Harry Langdon comedy that Del Ruth had directed at Sennett six months before. Kalla Pasha repeats his original role, while Harry Langdon’s part is taken over by James Parrott, who got his start in the film business thanks to his older brother Charles (better known as Charley Chase). When Charles was directing at Fox he brought James in, used him in small roles, and continued casting him in shorts for Bulls Eye and Reelcraft. At the same time James set out on his own, working as a day player on the Hal Roach lot, and co-starring in a few low-budget Holly Comedies, such as AN AUTO NUT (’19), with comic Sid Smith. Doing well at Roach and writing gags, James recommended Charles who was immediately hired and soon became the supervisor for the entire studio. In 1922 James was renamed Paul Parrott, billed as “the doodlewit of screen comedy,” and given his own series of gag happy one-reelers.

By 1924 the Roach style was growing more sophisticated, so Parrott’s three-year run came to an end. After a couple of starring shorts for Fox, he moved behind the camera as a writer and full-time director – helming much of the Roach product, particularly the Charley Chase and Laurel & Hardy shorts. Said to have been an erratic personality, possibly due to epilepsy, Jimmy’s problems escalated in the mid 1930s when his drinking made it impossible to work steadily. This curtailed his directing, although he continued writing, but BLOCKHEADS (’38) was the last. Jimmy died in 1939, officially of a heart attack, but it’s rumored to have been suicide because of his problems and inability to work.

This film is one of hundreds of slapstick comedies MoMA preserved from material held in the Czech film archive, and so it has Czech flash-titles – intertitles that have been cut down to just a few frames – but you really don't need titles to follow the "plot" in this film. While preservation materials are in 35mm, this screening print is in 16mm. 24 fps. MoMA also has material on the Langdon short SHANGHAIED LOVERS.

Cold Hearts and Hot Flames (9/20/1916) Prod: L-Ko Comedies. Dist: Universal. Dir: John G. Blystone. 2 reels. Cast: Billie Ritchie, Gladys Tennyson, Vin Moore, Bert Roach, Joe Murphy, James T. Kelly, Monty Banks (2 roles), Charles Lakin, Eva McKenzie.

Billie Ritchie is remembered today along with Billy West as a Charlie Chaplin imitator, but that description isn’t fully accurate as Ritchie carved his own niche in silent comedy history by presenting possibly the most low-down, despicable and unlikeable character ever seen on the screen. A Fred Karno veteran who shared gags, routines and body language not only with Charlie and Syd Chaplin, but also Stan Laurel, Billie Reeves and Jimmy Aubrey, Ritchie was brought to the screen by Henry “Pathe” Lehrman, who stressed the similarities in make-up and costume to Chaplin, and soon became the Andy Kaufman of the Teens by pushing the envelope and practically daring audiences to detest him.

In COLD HEARTS AND HOT FLAMES Billie is as usual up to no good – this time as a layabout who pretends to have inherited a fortune so he can marry the pretty daughter of a hotel proprietor. When his scheme falls apart Billie decides to burn the hotel for the insurance money, which leads to a climax of explosions, flames, spraying fire hoses, mud, and bodies flying through the air on piano wires.

Out of the 50 plus L-KO's that Ritchie cranked out between 1914 and 1916 only a handful exist today. He stayed connected to Lehrman and went on to make shorts for Fox and First National, but died young in 1921, said to have been the victim of an ostrich attack while shooting a film scene. Thanks to Charlie Chaplin’s enduring popularity Ritchie’s name is still bandied about as a Chaplin imitator eighty years after his death. Considering the fate of silent comics such as Marcel Perez, Fred Ardath, Wanda Wiley, Eddie Nelson, Charles Puffy and Jess Devorska, being misremembered seems preferable to being completely forgotten.

Another nice gem from our screenings, both because of its rarity and the fact that it is a good 35mm print, and you can really see the wires...which means the original audiences saw them, too. The film holds up well, in spite of having German flash titles. MoMA has a few other Ritchie titles from this time period.

"Animals and Children"

2009-05-01T16:19:00.016-04:00

Friday, May 29, 4:00

"Animals and Children: No Harm Done"

An Elephant on His Hands (1912) with George Ober
Cat, Dog, and Co. (1929) with Our Gang
Mind the Baby (1924) with Pal the dog
The Knockout (1923) with the Dippy-Doo-Dads
When Summer Comes (1922) With Billy Bevan
silent, with piano accompaniment by Ben Model

It’s an old rule among actors never to work with babies or animals, as they are natural scene stealers. Because of this quality they played an important part in silent comedy – sometimes used for cute throw-away gags, and often as stars of their own series. Performing animal acts were a vaudeville staple, but they were always the repetition of a set routine that the animal had learned. In films innocent babes and critters were often thrown into situations that involved pratfalls, runaway autos, burning buildings – things they didn’t understand and couldn't tell weren’t actual reality. According to former child performers such as Baby Peggy, these film scenes were mostly just as dangerous as they looked and frequently went awry.

Watching slapstick comedies now it’s one thing to enjoy physical knockabout with adult performers who willingly subjected themselves to the ordeals involved, but it crosses way over the comfort line with kids and animals who don’t know what’s going on. Audiences at the time seemed to have had no problem with this, so this program presents a cross-section of many things that could not be gotten away with today. AN ELEPHANT ON HIS HANDS shows the usual routines of a household disrupted by a roughly-handled little pachyderm. Next are two films from the Hal Roach studio. The first, CAT, DOG AND CO., has kids and animals together in one of the most bizarre episodes of their famous Our Gang series. Following is THE KNOCKOUT, an example of Roach’s Dippy-Doo-Dad comedies, which created an alternate, all-animal universe. The animal-as-star films is represented here by MIND THE BABY, where Pal the dog is the hero who risks life and limb to save a clearly traumatized toddler. Finally, the wild and ragtag WHEN SUMMER COMES gives us a look at “lion comedies” – a very popular comedy genre from about 1918 to 1924 – which always put adult actors in real peril working with unpredictable felines.

An Elephant on His Hands (10/16/1912) Prod: Vitagraph. Dir: Frederick Thomson. Writ: Gene Mullen. 1 reel. Cast: George Ober, Kate Price, Lillian Walker, Flora Finch, Robert Gaillard, Charles Eldridge, the elephant.

The basic story of AN ELEPHANT ON HIS HANDS was an often-filmed one in the early days of cinema. This version concerns an older gentleman in his cups who buys a little pachyderm and brings it home to his horrified family, but the usual plot had someone receive the beast as an inheritance from a rich uncle. This handy story was re-worked to fit monkeys, dogs, or lions. Made by Vitagraph in Brooklyn, the studio must have had easy access to elephants at this time as they also produced DIANA’S LEGACY and MAMMOTH LIFE SAVERS (both ’12) which teamed Flora Finch with elephants.

Although the main title is missing, this is otherwise a complete, beautiful, sharp 35mm print with all original intertitles. There a a number of elephant comedies that survive and this one was chosen because of its vintage and the print quality. What's interesting to note about this film is the fact that the elephant is more cooperative with the Vitagraph players than it is with the real animal trainer who shows up toward the end of the film to collect the animal, poking, prodding and shoving the poor creature through the house and down the front steps. The Vitagraph product from the early 'teens belies the stereotype that, other than Griffith, silent films are shot head-on with general over-head diffuse lighting. In screening many Vitagraph shorts from MoMA's collection (ask us about The Tangled Tangoists, with John Bunny and Flora Finch, BTW) we've seen that the good directors at Vitagraph often composed shots on a slight angle, grouping actors in specific ways to complement this and staging two and sometimes three playing areas. Regardless of the star being an elephant, these characteristics are in evidence in this fine short, as are use of local Brooklyn locations. Notice the interior stairwell scenes, which look like they may have been shot in an actual home.

Cat, Dog and Co. (9/14/1929) Prod: Hal Roach. Dist: MGM. Dir: Anthony Mack. Titles: H.M. Walker. 2 reels. Cast: Joe Cobb, Allen “Farina” Hoskins, Bobby “Wheezer” Hutchins, Jean Darling, Mary Ann Jackson, Pete the pup, Harry Spear, Donnie “Beezer” Smith, Hedda Hopper, Chet Brandenberg, Silas Wilcox, Dorothy Vernon, Harry Bowen, Jack Hill, Clara Guiol, Adele Watson, Bob Saunders, Jack O’Brien, Robert McGowan.

Animals were always an important part of Hal Roach’s long-running Our Gang series. Pete the pup became a full member in the late 1920’s and there were always various chickens, dogs, skunks, and mules named Dinah. In CAT, DOG AND CO. the feral co-stars take over in a plot that concerns Wheezer happily torturing all the critters he sees until he has a terrible nightmare where he’s put on trial by giant animals for his acts of cruelty.

This off-beat entry was directed by Anthony Mack (real name Robert Anthony McGowan), nephew of Our Gang founder Robert F. McGowan. Thanks to the usual Hollywood nepotism the younger McGowan directed fifteen shorts that were for the most part lackluster, although this one and DOG HEAVEN (’27) are the oddest in the series entire history. Mack’s last directorial effort on the series was the early talkie BOXING GLOVES (’29), but wasn’t the end of his association with Our Gang. Nine years later when the series moved over to MGM, Mack, under his real name of Robert A. McGowan co-wrote the screenplays for practically all of those dismal shorts. It’s hoped that the giant animals from CAT, DOG AND CO. had the opportunity to put him on trial for cruelty to audiences.

The silent Our Gang shorts are far more inventive and surreal than their talkie counterparts, and this short is no exception. This short is included because of its showing of both sides of animal treatment, as well as a well-made dream sequence in which Wheezer gets his come-uppance in an animal-run trial and is attacked by giant versions of the chickens he taunts early in the film. Plus, the film's climactic final third features a large menagerie of critters. MoMA's screening print is struck from a print with Dutch flash titles, and image quality is just okay. While this film does survive in good 16mm prints, this is an example of the fact that an archive's collection can include a range of materials, and isn't necessarily all 35mm nitrate camera negatives. The film does hold up well, even if you can't follow the intertitles. BTW, the woman from the animal society who gives the kids a lecture on how to treat animals is soon-to-be Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper. Roach film fans will recognize bit players and street sets in the 2nd half of the film, when all the animals get loose (spoiler alert!).

Mind the Baby (9/10/1924) Prod: Century Comedies. Dist: Universal. Dir: Al Herman. 2 reels. Cast: Pal, Louise Lorraine, Fred Spencer, Ernie Shields.

In the 1920's, Century Comedies was the home of a number of animal stars – there was Mr. & Mrs. Joe Martin (orangutans), Queenie (horse), Maude (mule) and Charlie (bull elephant). Producers Abe & Julius Stern were the brothers-in-law of Universal founder Carl Laemmle and notoriously cheap, so it’s very likely that their thinking was that feral Barrymores wouldn’t get swelled heads from all the publicity and public adoration and demand more bones or peanuts in salary.

The Stern’s first canine star was Brownie the wonder dog. After he passed on (probably due to sheer over-work) he was replaced by the star of this short, Pal. Owned by trainer Harry Lucenay, Pal generally had better timing and more personality than his human co-stars, and is rumored to be the father of Pete the pup (also trained by Lucenay). Working until around 1928, Pal also appeared with Harry Sweet, Our Gang, Jerry Madden and Big Boy.

Parts of MIND THE BABY have to be seen to be believed, and Pal’s baby co-star must have grown up wondering why he always had a panic attack whenever he’d see an alligator handbag or shoes.

This was one of those films that was at the top of the list when we were assembling the program themes for the series, mainly because of the toddler-'gator-pup fight in the middle. It's also a nice example of the Pal series which, like the Snookie-the-Humanzee shorts, features an animal as hero in a slapstick version of the Rin-Tin-Tin formula. This print is a good 16mm reduction from MoMA's 35mm preservation materials, which were struck from 35mm nitrate in the Czech film archive. The original material, like a majority of the slapstick shorts held in that archive and preserved by MoMA during Eileen Bowser's tenure, have Czech flash titles. However, this film is so out there you don't really miss them; all you need to know is there is a kidnapping plot afoot (although it doesn't get off the ground until reel 2). Most of reel 1 is shot at Echo Park in Los Angeles.

The Knockout (10/28/1923) Prod: Hal Roach. Dist: Pathe. Dir & Photo: Len Powers. 1 reel. Cast: The Dippy-Doo-Dads.
photo (R): Director/Photographer Len Powers with some of his wild thespians
Silent comedy was rife with Simian stars – there was Napoleon & Sally, their daughter Snooky the human-zee, and the Fox chimps Max, Moritz and Pep – but the cream of the monkey comedies was Hal Roach’s Dippy-Doo-Dad series. Its inspiration may have been William S. Campbell’s short-lived Campbell Comedies, which featured kids and their animal helpmates. MONKEY SHINES (’22) is the only circulating example today, and has very Dippy-Doo-Dad-ish scenes of Josephine the monkey doing her morning exercises and ablutions. Trainer Tony Campanaro had supplied the animals, and when the series ended Roach took the animal idea and spun it off into its own surreal universe, using Campanaro’s menagerie.

Roach studio staff photographer Len Powers became the auteur for the series, handling both the directing and photographing chores. The early entries were simple stories like BE HONEST and THE WATCH DOG (both ’23) where the feral stars were cavorting in a barnyard or hanging around a vegetable stand, but soon the shorts became spoofs of movie genres encompassing love triangles (LOVEY DOVEY ’23), the evils of drink (THE BAR FLY ’24) and rousing Northwest Mountie sagas (NORTH OF 50-50 ’24). THE KNOCKOUT takes on boxing melodramas, complete with detailed miniature sets and costumes. Roach discontinued the series in 1924, but Jules White and Zion Myers co-opted the idea in sound for their ever-popular Dogville Comedies.

Print is a beautiful, complete 35mm print with original intertitles. This film was one of the shorts from the class version of this series chosen for MoMA's January "PopRally" event. Called "Silent But Deadly", the evening consisted of three comedy shorts from the list and "response videos" made by a number of comedians. Two of the videos were in reponse to THE KNOCKOUT. One was made by comedy duo Gabe & Jenny called Where's the Tickets? which had a live score performed by Ben Model, and another by comedian Joe Mande was a mock director's interview á la a Criterion Collectors edition extra called The Knockout: 15 Years Later. Click here to see the website for this PopRally program which has all six of the response videos embedded on it.

When Summer Comes (9/23/1922) Prod: Mack Sennett. Dist: First National Pictures. Dir: Roy Del Ruth. 2 reels. Cast: Billy Bevan, Mildred June, Billy Armstrong, Kewpie Morgan, Tiny Ward, Cubby, Jack Cooper, John Rand, Gordon Lewis, Hughie Mack, Edgar Blue.

Comedies that featured lions menacing human actors became an extremely popular genre in the late 'teens and early 1920s. Studios such as Universal and Fox, who cranked out tons of titles like WILD WOMEN AND TAME LIONS (’18) and WILD LIONS AND FEROCIOUS CHEESE (‘20), had stables of lions ready at all times. Not wanting to be outdone the other comedy producers jumped on the bandwagon, including “King of Comedy” Mack Sennett.

This short is an early Sennett foray into the genre, where he tended to hold the lions back for the big climax. In addition to the lions, the general surreal mix includes Billy Bevan, Cubby the bear, a rustic hunting lodge, an elongated car with Hebrew-script license plates, and a wax-eating Native American. Other Sennett lion sagas are THE LION AND THE SOUSE (’24), SCAREM MUCH (’24), THE LION’S WHISKERS (’25), and what is likely the first sound entry THE LION’S ROAR (’28).

And, yes, those are swastikas on the Indian's tent in reel one. The symbol was used by many southwestern Native American tribes, especially the Navajo. The film contains a number of trademark Sennett car-lengthening gags (see also LIZZIES OF THE FIELD on June 1st). As much as there is trick photogaphy in the scenes with the lions, it's breathtaking or startling to see how many times the comedians are in the same frame with the lions, who get a heck of a workout going through all those transoms. The print is a 35mm with flash titles, and is probably the choppiest one on this program, but that's how a lot of these comedy shorts survive, with the heads and tails of reels gone due to decomp, etc...but what survives is in great shape, and it's great to see a crazy, surreal 1920's Sennett short in a sharp 35mm print (and in a theater, too!).

"The Machine Age"

2009-05-01T16:17:00.004-04:00

Monday, June 1 at 4:00
The Machine Age: Mack Sennett vs. Henry Ford

Lizzies of the Field (1924) with Billy Bevan
His Bread and Butter (1916) with Hank Mann, Slim Summerville
Get Out and Get Under (1920) with Harold Lloyd
Squeaks and Squawks (1920) with Jimmy Aubrey, Oliver Hardy
Neck and Neck (1924) with Lige Conley
Silent, with piano accompaniment by Ben Model.

The automobile was the symbol of modernity in the early part of the 20th Century. By the time the ‘teens and 1920s rolled around the middle class had begun acquiring them, so they became an indicator of social standing as well. From the beginning most people had a strong love/hate relationship with their cars – their tendency to break down and the putting of unheard of speed in the hands of sometime inexperienced drivers made them a prime source for comic frustration and misadventures. An interesting link between the film and automotive industry is that Mack Sennett took Henry Ford’s assembly-line concept and mated it to the themes and ideas of the early French film comedies to create Keystone – the first film factory devoted to mass-producing knockabout comedies.

Sennett’s staff always took great pleasure in destroying cars whenever they could, and LIZZIES OF THE FIELD is the ultimate in demolition derbies. HIS BREAD AND BUTTER has Hank Mann getting his wife a job so that he won’t have to20ride the trolley to work anymore, but of course he gets more than he bargained for. Harold Lloyd’s car is his pride and joy in GET OUT AND GET UNDER, but his affection isn’t reciprocated by the tin lizzie. In SQUEAKS AND SQUAWKS Jimmy Aubrey is a one-man weapon of mass destruction to anything on four wheels, and NECK AND NECK shows Lige Conley coping with an apocalyptic traffic jam.

Lizzies of the Field (9/7/1924) Prod: Mack Sennett. Dir: Del Lord. Dist: Pathe. Photo: George Spear, Bob Ladd & Ernie Crockett. Titles: J. A. Waldron. 2 reels. Cast: Billy Bevan, Sid Smith, Barbara Pierce, Jack Richardson, Jack Lloyd, Spencer Bell, Jack Richardson, Andy Clyde, Tiny Ward.

From 1923 to 1927 director Del Lord and comic Billy Bevan teamed for a series of zany and surreal Mack Sennett gag fests. Titles include DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHOES (’23), WANDERING WILLIES (’26), ICE COLD COCOS (’26), and this short, which is the ultimate in auto race slapstick. The Canadian-born Del Lord was an associate of the actor William Collier Sr., and when Collier began working for Mack Sennett in 1915 Del tagged along as his stand-in and stunt double. According to legend he then became the stunt driver for the Keystone Cops – able to maneuver cars into any kind of perilous situations and come out intact – which began his love of automotive slapstick. LIZZIES OF THE FIELD is possibly the most extreme of his valentines to cars and comedy. The mid-1920s saw Lord become one of Sennett’s top directors, and after a rocky period in the early 1930s (when he was temporarily out of movies and selling cars) he brought the Sennett style of zaniness to the Three Stooges, directing some of their best shorts like THREE LITTLE BEERS (’35) and AN ACHE IN EVERY STAKE (’41). His post-Stooges work included some Hugh Herbert shorts and a number “B” features for Columbia.

Along with Ben Turpin, Billy Bevan was one of Mack Sennett’s biggest stars of the 1920s, specializing in a screen persona that alternated between a comic everyman caught up in chaos and a roguish, practical joker who caused misfortunes to befall others. Born in Australia, Billy joined the comic opera company Pollard’s Lilliputians at a young age, which brought him to the Northern-part of the U.S. and Canada. Over here he worked in vaudeville and musical comedy with the Isobel Fletcher stock company and at G. M. (Broncho Billy) Anderson’s Gaiety Co. in San Francisco. Billy’s film debut came with L-Ko in 1916 as support to stars like Billie Ritchie and Alice Howell, and then he moved around to Strand, Fox Sunshine, and Century Comedies.

Hired by Sennett in 1919, Billy quickly became indentified with his big brush moustache, derby, and breezy personality. By the late 20s he was doing a “Tired Businessman” series that was more situational, and he even occasionally appeared without his trade mark moustache. Making the transition to sound in shorts, in 1930 he turned in an excellent dramatic performance in James Whale’s feature JOURNEY’S END. For the rest of his career Aussie Billy became one of Hollywood’s favorite Cockneys, and settled into character parts in features like THE LONG VOYAGE HOME (’40) and CLUNY BROWN (46) until his retirement in 1950.

In LIZZIES OF THE FIELD Billy shares the screen with Sennett regulars such as Jack Richardson, Andy Clyde and Tiny Ward, but his real co-star is Sid Smith, a hard-working comic who was one of the many diminutive comedians with a small moustache that were as numerous as weeds during the silent era. Born in 1893, Sid entered the movies around 1914, and some of his first were for the Selig Co., where he was a regular member of the “Chronicles of Bloom Center,” a series about the denizens of a rural small town and a rip-off of Essanany’s “Snakeville” comedies. Through the rest of his career Sid seemed to bounce around more than any other silent comic.

Although he wasn’t one of the original Hallroom Boys when the shorts premiered in 1919, Sid was in the series the longest and was paired with the likes of Harry McCoy, Jimmie Adams, and George Williams (a.k.a. George “Zip” Monberg). He starred in series for big companies such as Sennett, Jack White and Fox, but also performed for independent units like Grand Asher, Federated, Standard, and even the bottom-tiered William Pizor Productions. While there was never much depth to his persona, he had comic agility and crisp timing. Always a pleasant screen presence, he was working for Al Christie in 1928 when he died from drinking bad bootleg booze at a weekend party.

We inadvertently discovered the uncut first reel of this film in MoMA's collection when prints were called in for the Nov/Dec 2008 class version of this series. At a prep screening we noticed two cans marked LIZZIES OF THE FIELD, one 16mm – which we were expecting – and one 35mm. What everyone's seen on this film for decades is a version with an abridged first reel. The film doesn't seem incomplete this way, but it gets to the road race -- which you'll probably recognize from TV commercials -- awfully quick. We had the projectionist thread up the 35mm to see what it was and it turned out to be the complete first reel, with gags in the garage none of us had seen before. While it doesn't have the pun-filled Sennett intertitles (Dutch flash titles, instead), the image quality is quite good. What we did in class, and will attempt to do again for this showing, is run the 35mm followed by the 16mm (a Blackhawk Films print) at the point where reel two would begin...sort of a live restoration. You'll be the second audience to see the "complete" film.

His Bread and Butter (4/9/1916) Prod: Mack Sennett. Dir: Eddie Cline & Hank Mann. Dist: Triangle Film Corp. Photo: K.G. MacLean. 2 reels. Cast: Hank Mann, Peggy Pearce, Slim Summerville, Bobby Dunn, Eddie Baker, Wayland Trask, Mal St Clair, Bobby Vernon, Nick Cogley, Claire Anderson, Robert Kerr.

Hank Mann is one of the most underrated and overlooked comics of silent comedy, with a performing style that was dry and underplayed. Having some stage experience he was an early Keystone participant, joining up in 1912. After eighteen months Hank began roaming – first going to support Ford Sterling at his Sterling Co., and then becoming a lead comic at L-Ko for a year before coming back to Keystone. By this time his screen get-up had solidified into a brush moustache, bowl haircut, and bashful eyes. HIS BREAD AND BUTTER is from this return to Sennett, but it wasn’t long before Hank was off again – this time for a starring series at Fox where he was teamed up with director Charles Parrott (a.k.a. Charley Chase) for shorts like THERE’S MANY A FOOL and THE CLOUD PUNCHER (both ’17).

In 1919 he began a series of one-reelers for Morris Schlank with distribution by Arrow which blossomed into two-reelers and was the peak of Hank’s career. Surviving examples such as THE BILL POSTER (‘20) show a strong surreal streak, not to mention a flair for parody illustrated by MYSTIC MUSH (‘20) that roasts movie serials to a tee. After making two or three seasons of these independent, states rights shorts, they remained in circulation for a long time after the shooting was done so Hank took to working behind the scenes as a gag writer for comic Lloyd Hamilton and producers Jack White and Al Christie. It’s easy to spot films that Hank worked on as he usually turns up in a cameo. Features also provided work with supporting roles in THE BOOB (‘26) and SPITE MARRIAGE (’29), plus writing assignments such as KID BOOTS (‘26) with Eddie Cantor. When sound came in he kept working although for the most part his roles were reduced to little bits. Hank’s most memorable later work was two appearances with Charlie Chaplin – first as the suspicious boxer in CITY LIGHTS (’31), and then as one of the “Keystone” storm troopers in THE GREAT DICTATOR (’40).

Playing Hank’s wife is Peggy Pearce, one of the most beautiful of the early silent comedy leading ladies. Very busy in the ‘teens, she began her career at Biograph in 1913 and soon ended up at Keystone. Like Hank, Peggy moved to the Sterling Co. and L-Ko and then found her way back to Sennett. Although not funny on her own, Pearce added a lot of appeal to the comedies with her warm personality and striking looks. She later did shorts and features for Triangle, and in one of her last films was support to Louise Glaum in SEX (’20). (If you go to imdb you’ll see Peggy listed as also having worked under the name Viola Barry. This is incorrect as they were two separate actresses).

Creating problems for Hank and trying to steal every scene they are in are Slim Summerville and Bobby Dunn. Both began doing bits and stunts at Keystone around 1914 and worked their way up to regular featured clowns. Around this time they were teamed to make a “Mutt and Jeff” pair of pals who weren’t above doing each dirt in shorts like THE WINNING PUNCH (’16) and VILLA OF THE MOVIES (’17). Over the years they would continue the teamwork in shorts for Fox and Universal. Separately, Bobby did a starring series for Arrow in the early 1920s, and Slim, while he continued to appear on screen, began directing shorts for Fox, Joe Rock, and Universal. When sound came in, Slim fared better than Bobby. His excellent performance in ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (’30) put him in demand, and through the 1930s he was generally a supporting player in “A” features and a star in “B’s.” Often teamed with Zasu Pitts, he worked right up to his death in 1946. Bobby drifted into bit roles and died young at age forty-six from a heart attack in 1937.

Co-director Eddie Cline was one of the great film comedy collaborators, and said to have been one of the nicest and easiest going guys in the business – which came in handy when he worked with W. C. Fields on five pictures. Cline started in films as an extra, and landed at Keystone where he did bit parts and became an assistant to Del Henderson. Soon he was directing with Hampton Del Ruth, then on his own, films such as A BEDROOM BLUNDER (’17) and HEARTS AND FLOWERS (’19), before moving over to Fox Sunshine Comedies. In 1920 he hooked up with Buster Keaton, and was his collaborator on 17 shorts and first feature THE THREE AGES (’23). Following his work with Buster, Cline returned to shorts for Sennett, while doing occasional features for Jackie Coogan and others. In sound he famously worked with Fields, Wheeler & Woolsey, and Olsen & Johnson, directing classics like MILLION DOLLAR LEGS (’32), SO THIS IS AFRICA (’33), THE BANK DICK (’40) and CRAZY HOUSE (’43). He finished his career doing “Maggie and Jiggs” programmers for Monogram, plus contributing to the TV shows of Buster Keaton and Spike Jones.

Getting to see more of the work of this great and overlooked comedian has been one of the many delights we've had screening shorts from MoMA's vast collection. He seemed to grasp that in the midst of all the baggy-pants and push-broom mustache comics, his big soulful eyes could be something to draw the audience in and allow it to connect with him. The gags in his films are always very inventive and have a little more thought in them for the year they're made in -- there's a short from 1921 we looked at where Hank does the same gag at a party, eating spaghetti and then mistakes a streamer for a strand of pasta, that Chaplin would do 10 years later in CITY LIGHTS.

Get Out and Get Under (9/12/1920) Prod & Dir: Hal Roach. Dist: Pathe.Photo: Walter Lundin. Titles: H.M. Walker. 2 reels. Cast: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Fred McPherson, “Sunshine Sammy” Morrison, Frank Terry, Molly Thompson, Wallace Howe, William Gillespie, Charles Stevenson, Noah Young.

GET OUT AND GET UNDER finds Harold Lloyd right on the brink of major stardom. In the eight years since entering the film industry as an extra in 1913 he’d worked his way up the movie ladder. Not only had he created two popular screen characters and developed his own theories on screen comedy, but had also survived a disfiguring accident to find himself more popular than ever.

In 1919 Harold’s leading lady of three years, Bebe Daniels, went off to star in features, so he and Hal Roach had to find a replacement. At this time their shorts were growing more sophisticated – although they were still slapstick they were trying to refine the elements and make them more realistic. Bebe had been tough and scrappy – always ready to return a kick or a slap and fully participated in the knockabout action. For her replacement they picked the exact opposite – blonde, soft, and frilly Mildred Davis. Where Bebe had been a pal, Mildred was a goal to be obtained which propelled the plots and ultimately made it possible for Lloyd to make the jump into features in 1921. Mildred’s first film with him was FROM HAND TO MOUTH (’19), but while shooting the third, HAUNTED SPOOKS (’20), Harold had his accident, and while he recovered Mildred got more screen experience as leading lady for Snub Pollard. Once Harold resumed Mildred remained onscreen with him until 1923’s SAFETY LAST, and when the couple married afterward she basically retired from acting. Interestingly, Jobyna Ralston, Harold's next leading lady, was a combination of Mildred and Bebe Daniels.

Hal Roach had amassed a stock company of seasoned supporting comics who appeared in every Lloyd and Snub Pollard comedy (often more than once). In the opening of GET OUT AND GET UNDER Harold’s neighbor is played by Frank Terry, a colorful character who was the first official gagman of the Roach studio. Terry, earlier known as Nat Clifford, toured the world as a child acrobat, and then became a popular singer-songwriter in England in the 1890s. A scandal caused him to flee the country and he ended up in American vaudeville where he made his way to California. His earliest known film appearance is from 1917 and he remained a jack-of-all-trades for Hal Roach throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, but still managed stray credits for Universal, Bray and Mack Sennett comedies. William Gillespie makes a brief appearance as the junkie whose dope Harold borrows to get his car started again. Gillespie’s earliest appearances were in Chaplin’s Mutual comedies – EASY STREETS’s drug addict, the café violinist in THE IMMIGRANT (both ’17) – and from there he joined the Roach company. He then spent the next 16 years playing everything from snooty department store managers to old tobacco-chewing farmers, remaining a ubiquitous presence into the early 1930s. Also on hand in little bits are Molly Thompson, Wallace Howe, Charles Stevenson, Noah Young and Sunshine Sammy Morrison (see HAUNTED SPOOKS notes).

GET OUT AND GET UNDER was Harold’s eighth two-reeler, and he was beginning to chafe within the short film format. He was instinctively looking for more time to develop his stories and characters, and a year later his first feature A SAILOR-MADE MAN (’21) was released. This was followed by GRANDMA’S BOY (’22), whose success led to Lloyd’s becoming one of the great stars and most creative producers of the 1920s.

This print, in addition to having flash titles, is missing its opening scene in the photographer's studio. This is not an unusual edition...in fact an almost identical print, but with color tints in some scenes, survives at the Danish Film Institute. Interesting that an edition of this film circulated with the opening scene removed but with the heroin addict gag intact. The film gets its title from a popular song hit first published in 1913 and which the film-going public still knew. Here's a recording of Billy Murray singing it:

Squeaks and Squawks (3/29/1920) Big V Special Comedy. Prod: Vitagraph. Dir: Noel M. Smith. Writ: Anthony W. Coldeway. 2 reels. cast: Jimmy Aubrey, Oliver Hardy, Dixie Lamont, Dick Dickinson.

In the early ‘teens the Vitagraph Studio was the bastion for clever and polite situational comedies that starred Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew, Florence Turner, Wally Van, Lillian “Dimples” Walker, and most famously John Bunny and Flora Finch. This completely changed after 1916 – Bunny died in 1915, the Drews, Finch, Van, and Turner exited to greener pastures, and a young newspaper cartoonist named Lawrence Semon came in as director and writer. Semon brought the surreal gags and anarchistic spirit of comic strips to Vitagraph, and the comedic emphasis was now on slapstick. By 1919 the studio’s comedy stars were Semon, Earl Montgomery & Joe Rock, and last, and probably least, Jimmy Aubrey.

Born to an English pantomime family Jimmy Aubrey was a veteran of Fred Karno’s Speechless Comedians where he played roles like the Terrible Turk in MUMMING BIRDS. Coming to America with a Karno tour, he soon went out on his own touring vaudeville and even worked in logging camps and cattle ranches between theatrical jobs. He entered films in 1915 with the Mittenthal Film Co. where he was teamed with Walter Kendig as “Heinie & Louie” in Starlight Comedies. After two years of playing these Weber & Fields clones Aubrey moved to Vitagraph to support Hughie Mack, and then got his own series that was initially directed by Larry Semon.

His stay at Vitagraph was the peak of Aubrey’s career, as he had solid direction and talented co-stars. Never a subtle performer, Aubrey’s character was that of a combative bum with an oddly parted brush moustache that looked like he had a caterpillar growing out of each nostril. Having a difficult and disagreeable nature, Aubrey had frequent clashes with Vitagraph and left in 1923. This started a downward spiral that led to independent shorts for Chadwick, a couple of seasons in Joe Rock produced comedies, shorts for Weiss Brothers Artclass, and by the end of the 1920s small turns in other comic’s films, like Laurel & Hardy’s THAT’ MY WIFE (’29). He had been playing bit parts in features since 1925, and continued after sound arrived, appearing in many B westerns. Living to age 94, he remained in character and had nothing good to say about any of the colleagues that he had outlived.

As the main support in the bulk of Aubrey’s Vitagraph shorts, Babe Hardy steals everything but the film’s sprocket holes. A completely natural actor, Hardy always realized that less is more and even before Laurel & Hardy was able to take an audience into his confidence with sly looks to the camera. After working for Lubin, Vim, and King Bee, Vitagraph was a jump up the studio food chain for Babe, and he was soon to move to the films of the studio’s top comic Larry Semon. Director Noel M. Smith was a solid comedy craftsman who in addition to Vitagraph worked for L-Ko, Sennett, Henry Lehrman, Fox and Century, plus was married to Louise Fazenda. In the mid-1920s he began directing action features with the likes of Richard Talmadge and Silver Streak the dog. The sound era saw him mostly at Warner Brothers piloting entertaining B films such as SECRET SERVICE OF THE AIR and THE COWBOY QUARTERBACK (both ’39).

Neck and Neck (2/3/1924) Prod: Jack White. Dir: Fred Hibbard. Dist: Educational Pictures. 2 reels. Cast: Lige Conley, Peg O’Neal, Hank Mann, Olive Borden, George Ovey, Fay Holderness, Spencer Bell, Cliff Bowes.

Billed by Educational as “The Speed Boy of Comedy,” Lige Conley’s breezy personality and ability to perform stunts provided the springboard for a six-year series of lightning-paced action comedies. Born Elijah Crommie in 1899, he grew up a couple of miles from the Keystone studio and in 1915 began turning up in Sennett comedies, soon branching out to shorts for Hal Roach, Reelcraft and Fox. Jack White began starring Lige in 1920, first teamed with Jimmie Adams and then on his own. The title of his best remembered short, FAST AND FURIOUS (’24), is a good description of his entire series, and NECK AND NECK is no exception – chock-full of rapid fire gags and well-staged physical stunts.

Director Fred Hibbard was actually Fred Fishback, known for his work at Sennett, Fox and Century comedies. After being an attendee at Roscoe Arbuckle’s infamous Labor Day party, plus a participant in the much publicized trials, Fishback changed his name to Hibbard and continued turning out large quantities of shorts for Century, Jack White and Lloyd Hamilton before his death from cancer in early 1925. The cast of supporting comics includes stalwarts such as Peg O’Neal, George Ovey, Cliff Bowes and Hank Mann. There’s not much info available on Peg O’Neal, although the Educational press sheet for this film guarantees she’s “as homely as ever and twice as funny.” The press sheet for another Conley short gives this dollop of background data:

“Peg O’Neal, who supports Lige Conley in “Casey Jones Jr.,” was a dramatic actress before she entered comedy. She played Shakespearian parts, and other tragedies.”

Born in Ireland and beginning her film career at age 15, she was a regular in the Conley shorts of 1923 and 24. George Ovey had been a star in his own shorts for Gaiety and Pacific Film Co., but at this point his career was winding down into bit parts, which he would do without credit until 1951. Cliff Bowes was a vaudevillian who began showing up in Sennett comedies in 1916. By 1920 he was working for Century, Warner Brothers and Jack White comedies, then in 1923 White began starring Bowes in one-reel Cameo Comedies, usually teamed with Virginia Vance. Cliff worked on and off for White until 1929 when he died at the age of 34. Finally we come to Hank Mann, who was working at this time as a gagman for Jack White comedies and turns up in a funny cameo early in the film.

When Conley’s series for Jack White ended in 1926 he made a few starring shorts for Fox and Sennett, but soon lost his star status and drifted behind the camera writing gags. After the arrival of sound he’s known to have made a few appearances with Lloyd Hamilton, but then disappears. Sporadically working behind the scenes, while helping a stalled auto he was struck and killed by a passing car in 1937.

This particular short is also notable for being Olive Borden's first noticeable screen role; she'd only appeared in PONJOLA (1923) but is not easily spotted (or at all) in that film, so this could be considered her first. Print is a sharp 35mm preserved from nitrate held by the Czech film archive, hence the film's abrupt opening, flash titles and ending "crash" (lingo for a film ending too soon because of nitrate decomp).