LAME BRAINS AND LUNATICS: Silent Comedy Rarities from …



LAME BRAINS AND LUNATICS: Silent Comedy Rarities from the Library of Congress

Program #1

AN INCOMPETENT HERO (Nov.12, 1914) Keystone Comedy. Produced by Mack Sennett. Directed by Roscoe Arbuckle. Distributed by Mutual. 1 reel. Cast: Roscoe Arbuckle, Edgar Kennedy, Lucille Ward, Minta Durfee, Al St John, Josef Swickard, Ted Edwards, Dick Smith, Slim Summerville.

By 1914 Roscoe Arbuckle was well-established directing his own pictures after an intense 10 month crash course from Sennett and Henry Lehrman, and while most of his early efforts were typical slapstick frolics, Roscoe showed an easy mastery of setting up and shooting physical action in a clean and precise manner. Always taking great joy in the rough and tumble, his shorts at their best in this period are well-choreographed slapstick ballets. From here Roscoe went on to use better developed stories in shorts like THAT LITTLE BAND OF GOLD (’15), and while the popular “Fatty and Mabel” series enjoyed generous helpings of knockabout Roscoe still managed to include satirical observations about marriage and male/female relationships. By the time of HE DID AND HE DIDN’T (’16) he was the most sophisticated director under the Sennett banner, and to continue to develop, artistically and financially, Arbuckle left Sennett in 1917 to sign with producer Joseph Schenck.

AN INCOMPETENT HERO’s supporting crew is made up of Arbuckle’s usual mix of real-life and cinematic families, starting with his wife Minta Durfee and nephew Al St John. Both were standard ingredients in his 1914 Keystones, and while Al went on to have a solo career into the 1950s and Lash Larue, sadly Minta never clicked on her own, and after a short-lived starring series in the early 1920s joined the ranks of extras and bit players in the latter part of her life. Comedy icons Edgar Kennedy and Slim Summerville are present, as are versatile vets like Josef Swickard and Lucille Ward, plus the rank and file of Ted Edwards and Dick Smith. (Steve Massa)

A BUSY NIGHT (June 26, 1916) Produced by Eagle Films. Directed by Marcel Perez. 1 reel. Cast: Marcel Perez, Tom Murray.

This film gives a good look at Marcel Perez, one of the most obscure comedy creators of the silent era. Starting in European comedies in 1900, by 1910 he became known world-wide as Robinet in a series for the Ambrosio Company of Italy. After five years there he came to America in 1915 and starred in shorts for independent outfits like Vim, Eagle, Jester, and Reelcraft. Along with Max Linder he was one of the few direct links between European and American silent comedy, but his career was cut short in 1922 when he lost a leg in an on the set accident. By 1924 he was back writing and directing for producers such as Joe Rock and Universal, but due to his injuries he died in his early forties in 1927.

A BUSY NIGHT is part of Perez’s series for Eagle Films, which was made in Jacksonville, Florida, a beehive of silent comedy activity in the mid-teens with companies such as Vim, King Bee, Lubin, Jaxon, Gaumont, Kalem, Klever Komedies, and Josh Binney Comedies all working in the area. With his character known as Tweedledum, Perez’s Eagle stock company of supporting players included his wife Babette Perez (a.k.a. Nilde Baracchi), Rex Adams, and Billy Slade, not to mention Louise Carver and Tom Murray, two performers who would eventually move to California and become silent comedy regulars. (SM)

DOUGH-NUTS (June 15, 1917) King Bee Comedies. Produced by Louis Burstein. Directed by Arvid E. Gilstrom. Photographed by Herman Obrock. 2 reels. Cast: Billy West, Babe Hardy, Ethel Burton, Florence McLoughlin, Budd Ross, Leo White, Joe Cohn, Frank Bates.

In the teens the demand for Chaplin films grew so great that outright imitators sprouted up to fill the bill.

Many consider Billy West to have been the best of the Chaplin clones, and his shorts for the King Bee Co. still fool people who should know better. Born Roy B. Weissberg in Russia, he came to America and spent ten years in vaudeville where he eventually developed an act called “Is He Charlie Chaplin?,” which featured his version of the Little Tramp. Recruited for films, West made early shorts such as BOMBS AND BOARDERS (’16) and HIS WAITING CAREER (’16) before headlining at King Bee. The company included directors Arvid E. Gillstrom and Charles Parrott, with Ethel Burton, Leo White, and Budd Ross in supporting roles, but West’s main support and virtual co-star was Oliver Hardy.

Billed as “Babe,” Hardy was of course a natural scene-stealer who began in films for Lubin and Vim. After working with Billy West he would prove invaluable to other star comics such as Jimmy Aubrey and Larry Semon. By 1926 he was part of the ensemble at the Hal Roach Studio, and in the right place at the right time for his teaming with Stan Laurel and place in film comedy history. (SM)

OUTS AND INS (Aug. 2, 1916) The Mishaps of Musty Suffer in Numerous Whirls. (Series 2, Whirl #7). Produced by George Kleine. Directed and written by Louis Myll. 1 reel. Cast: Harry Watson Jr., Della Connor, Dan Crimmins, Maxfield Moree.

One of the most forgotten series of silent comedy is THE MISHAPS OF MUSTY SUFFER, which starred the equally forgotten Harry Watson Jr. Produced in 1916 and 1917 by George Kleine, it was a comedy serial that chronicled the misadventures of put-upon tramp Musty Suffer who lives a slapstick version of the story of Job where he bears the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Cartoony and surreal, the series was a direct descendant of the anarchic early European comedies of Pathe and Gaumont with the likes of Andre Deed, Ernest Bourbon, and Sarah Duhamel. In this installment Musty gets a job as the “auto” in an automat, but spends most of his time battling miscreants who are looking for a free lunch.

Star Harry Watson Jr. was a popular clown who had spent years in circuses and vaudeville with his partner George Bickel, before they became headliners in the earliest Ziegfeld Follies and rubbed elbows with legends such as Fanny Brice and Bert Williams. After his stint as Musty Suffer Watson returned to the stage, where he had a huge success in the 1925-1926 George & Ira Gershwin/Guy Bolton show TIP-TOES. His later film roles were sporadic, mostly supporting Marion Davies in LITTLE OLD NEW YORK (’23) and ZANDER THE GREAT (’25), before retiring from show business in the late 1920s. (SM)

UNDER A SPELL (Jan. 6, 1925) Produced by Universal. Directed by Richard Smith. 1 reel. Cast: Alice Howell, Neely Edwards, Bert Roach.

Alice Howell is an overlooked performer, neglected today due to the loss of most of her films, who had a unique style that combined feminine delicacy with out and out roughhouse. Coming to the screen from vaudeville and musical comedy, she started at Keystone as an extra in 1914 and by the end of that year had worked her way up to featured roles. After defecting to L-Ko she became a star in 1916, specializing in slightly addled working-class girls, with the trademarks of a mountain of frizzy hair piled high on her head and a penguin-waddle walk. So popular that Century Comedies was launched in 1917 to showcase her shorts, she moved on to other producers like Reelcraft, and by the mid-1920s was co-starring in this series with Neely Edwards and Bert Roach where her working-class slavey had settled into a nice middle-class life but was still on the ditzy side. Although she portrayed poor and not-so-bright girls on screen, in real life Alice had shrewdly socked her salary into California real estate, and, after retiring young in 1926, spent her days as the grandmother of George Stevens Jr. and comfortably managing her lucrative holdings until her death in 1961. (SM)

Program #2

SAMMY’S SCANDALOUS SCHEME (Dec. 27, 1915) Vogue Comedies. Directed by Gilbert P. Hamilton. Distributed by Mutual. 1 reel. Cast: Sammy Burns, Dot Farley, Eva (Evlyn) Thatcher, Walter Rogers, Raymond Zell, Clarence Lochems, Dorothea Clarke, J. McCuran, James Green.

This fascinating short was made just as the Chaplin craze had really taken off, and goes out of its way to cram in as many images and references to the little tramp as possible with star Sammy Burns taking his place among the numerous Chaplin imitators. British-born, Burns got his own start in the English music hall, and entered films when producers were looking for performers with similar backgrounds to Charlie in the hopes of getting a seat on the Chaplin gravy train. He starred in the first few Vogue Comedies before being supplanted by Paddy McGuire, Rube Miller, and Ben Turpin, and moved on to a few shorts for L-Ko and Nestor before headlining in a series of King Cole Comedies made on the east coast in 1919. Never really catching on, his 1920s appearances were very sporadic – the Reelcraft short OH, BUOY (’21) and a low-rent independent feature titled FUN ON THE FARM (’26).

Sammy’s Chaplin-crazed girlfriend is played by Dot Farley, an early film comedienne who never settled in at one studio. After a few years on the stage she started her film work in 1910 at Essanany, and then was constantly on the move – American, St. Louis Motion Picture Co., Keystone, Albuquerque/Luna, Min A, Kay Bee, Fox Sunshine, L-Ko, Century and Clover Comedies. An important player in her 1913 Keystones, she would return to Sennett frequently into the sound era, most memorably as Ben Turpin’s cross-eyed mother in A SMALL TOWN IDOL (’21). She was valuable support in tons of features such as A SELF-MADE FAILURE (’24) and THE GRAND DUCHESS AND THE WAITER (’26), plus continued to go strong in sound. Best known today as Edgar Kennedy’s mother-in-law in his RKO shorts, after retiring in 1950 she lived to the ripe age of 90. (Steve Massa)

HAM AND THE MASKED MARVEL (May 2, 1916) Produced by Kalem. Directed by Harry Edwards. 1 reel. Cast: Lloyd Hamilton, Bud Duncan, Norma Nichols.

The Kalem Company started Lloyd Hamilton and Bud Duncan as “Ham and Bud” in their series of Ham Comedies in 1914. In more than 100 one-reelers from late 1914 to 1917, the pair played tramps whose only distinguishing characteristic was that one was a big skuzzy bum and the other a little skuzzy bum. Rough and primitive, they were the Burke and Hare of silent comedy – always ready to knife each other in the back with hearts filled with murder and mayhem. When the series came to an end in 1917, Lloyd Hamilton moved on the Fox Comedies, and eventually 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 Clover Comedies, Reelcraft, and Weiss Brothers. (SM)

NEARLY SPLICED (1916 / 1921) Produced by George Kleine. Written by J.C. Miller. 2 reels. Cast: Leon Errol, Della Connor, Rosa Gore, Arthur Housman, Dan Crimmins, H.H. McCollum, Maxfield Moree.

Leon Errol is remembered for his sound comedies – his own series of two-reelers and appearances in features such as the “Mexican Spitfire” series – but he also had a sizeable career in silent pictures. The Australian-born Errol had toured the world with his own theatrical troupe, where he gave early work to a young Roscoe Arbuckle, before becoming a headliner and director for the Ziegfeld Follies. NEARLY SPLICED was his first venture into cinema, even opening with a note from producer Kleine introducing Leon to movie audiences, although this short and a couple of other such as IN AT THE FINISH ended up not reaching screens until they were released by Reelcraft in 1921.

In the 1920s Errol appeared on stage in Ziegfeld produced hits such as SALLY and LOUIE THE 14TH, but still found time to do the feature films YOLANDA (’24), SALLY (’25), CLOTHES MAKE THE PIRATE (’25) and LUNATIC AT LARGE (’27). When sound arrived he was more popular than ever and worked non-stop to his death in 1951. (SM)

MUGGSY IN BAD (1917) Ray Comedies. Produced by the Cleveland Comedy Co. Distributed by General Film Co. 1 reel. Cast: Johnny Ray, Emma Ray.

Johnny and Emma Ray were popular vaudeville stars who toured for many years in shows like HOT OLD TIME and 1907’s KING CASEY, where they had support from a young Ford Sterling. The Wales-born Ray had developed a wizened Irish character, usually named Casey, with the large Emma as his combative spouse. In 1916 the pair decided to get into the movie game and set up their own production company named after their home base of Cleveland, Ohio.

About ten shorts were made with production taking place in Cleveland, Jacksonville, Fla., and Cliffside, New Jersey. MUGGSY IN BAD was definitely shot in the east, making it possibly the only surviving silent comedy shot in the “Mistake by the Lake” (as Cleveland was known when I was growing up in another part of Ohio). Ray hit the big time in 1920 when he played Jiggs in the “Bringing Up Father” comedies produced by Al Christie, but afterward ill health kept him inactive until he passed away in 1927. Emma did bits in films such as SO BIG! (’32) and THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY (’34) until her death in 1935. (SM)

DIZZY DAISY (June 29, 1924) Mermaid Comedies. Produced by Jack White. Directed by Fred Hibbard. 2 reels (on original release). Cast: Louise Fazenda, Lee Moran, Cliff Bowes, Dick Sutherland, John Rand.

Remembered as the pig-tailed bumpkin that she played for Mack Sennett, Louise Fazenda came from the stage and in 1913 began working in Universal’s Joker Comedies with Max Asher, Gale Henry, and Bobby Vernon. By 1915 she was at the Sennett studio where she became a star and would remain until 1921. At first she played a wide 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 she was a fine actress who made all her outlandish comedy roles very believable.

After leaving Sennett she starred in shorts for Punch Comedies, and DIZZY DAISY, along with PEST OF THE STORM COUNTRY (’23) and COLD CHILLS (’23), was one of the three two-reelers she made for producer Jack White before she moved 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), often teamed with comic Clyde Cook. In sound films she continued in major supporting roles until 1939. Married to producer Hal Wallis, she retired and devoted herself to charity work before passing away in 1962. (SM)

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