76 years ago today Bugs Bunny first hopped onto movie screens. Since this he has become one of the most famous and beloved cartoon stars in the world. To celebrate his birthday today we are going to look at some great Bugs Bunny shorts.
We are going to start with a classic 1943 cartoon from director Robert Clampett. This film is Falling Hare, and is a short about Bugs fighting a gremlin. The title was originally going to be Bugs Bunny and the Gremlin. However Disney was working on an animated feature called Gremlin Lore (film that would never come to be). Because of this Walt asked if the other Hollywood animation studious could not make cartoons about gremlins. However since this cartoon was already well into production, producer Leon Schlesinger decided instead to change the title to Falling Hare. Similarly another Warner Brothers' cartoon originally going to be titled Gremlins From the Kremlin was renamed Russian Rhapsody. The animators on this film include Robert McKimson, Rod Scribner, Manny Gould, Thomas McKimson, Bill Melendez, Phil Monore and Virgil Ross. This an excellent and very funny cartoon, so enjoy.
Next up is All This and Rabbit Stew. This cartoon was directed by animation great Tex Avery. However Avery had left Warners by the time the film was released. Because of this he receives no screen credit for having directed it. This was the last Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Tex Avery, who had directed Bugs in the rabbit's debut A Wild Hare. Animation of Bugs tricking the hunter with log would be reused in the cartoon The Big Snooze. This film has been declared one of the censored 11. These are 11 Warner Brothers cartoon that have been banned from TV because they have been declared too racially insensitive. This cartoon however is a very funny film and a must watch for all lovers of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. The animators include Robert McKimson, Virgil Ross, Charles McKimson, Rod Scribner, Sidney Sutherland and John Didrik Johnsen.
Last but certainly not least is the 1950 classic Rabbit of Seville directed by Chuck Jones. Chuck Jones and his writer Michael Maltese loved the mixture of high and popular culture and this film shows that perfectly., as it is a slapstick parody of opera, but is also very respectful to opera. Notice a sign with the names Eduardo Selzeri, Michele Maltese and Carlo Jonzi on it. This obviously references Chuck and Michael, but it also references producer Edward Selzer. The animators on this film include Ken Champin, Ben Washam, Phil Monroe, Emery Hawkins and Llyod Vaughan. This is a masterpiece of cartoon filmmaking so enjoy
The popularity of Bugs will never end nor should it so on with the show this is it...
Today we give tribute to one of the greatest comic minds in the history of film. That is Stan Laurel, who was born this day in 1890. Stan Laurel is of course most associated with the team of Laurel and Hardy and this is where he did his best film work. The Laurel and Hardy films remain some of the funniest comedies in the history of cinema. They are something that every lover of comedy should watch however he had a quite good career before he teamed up with his longtime screen partner.
This is where are first film comes in. It is Stan's earliest existing film. Though Stan had appeared in films before this, all of those are considered lost. So we are going to look at 1918's Just Rambling Along. This film was directed by Hal Roach, who produced many of Laurel and Hardy's best films. This film is the first time Stan worked with Roach. Look for also appearing in this film Noah Young (the bully in many Harold Lloyd films) and Bud Jamison (who would often times appear with the Three Stooges). It is also worth noting how little this character has to do with Stan Laurel's later character. It would be a while before audiences would first see that character. Also this film doesn't exist in it's entirety and parts are missing but we are lucky to have it at all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otaFjn7oc3k
Stan Laurel for a short time appeared in a few films of actor/director/writer Larry Semon. What is interesting about this is Oliver Hardy did as well but not at the same time. So the two never worked together on these films. Larry Semon was a very popular comedian during this time. His talents lied heavily in slapstick and stunts, but he often missed when it came to story and characters. Therefore his film output was not very consistent. However this film is one of Semon's best. So also from 1918 here is Fraud and Frenzies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdikSvgU4TY
Next up comes a classic Laurel and Hardy silent short called That's My Wife. Laurel and Hardy teamed up near the end of the silent era, but their contribution to this art of silent film was great. Such films as this, Wrong Again, Big Business and Two Tars are absolute classics of silent comedy. This film was directed by Lloyd French, whose whole career as a director was mostly spent in short subjects (his only feature work was as an uncredited co-director on a Laurel and Hardy feature called Pack Up Your Troubles). He did his best work with Laurel and Hardy directing such classics as Dirty Work and Busy Bodies. One of the writers of this film was Leo McCarey who would later direct such classics as Duck Soup and The Awful Truth. McCarey is also often given credit for the idea of teaming Stan and Ollie. The cinematographer for this film was George Stevens, who would later direct such classic as The More The Merrier, The Dairy of Anne Frank and Shane. This is a fantastic short and I know you will enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6wgHSKvIzk
Next up comes another classic Laurel and Hardy short. The next film is Brats. This film was directed by James Parrott, who was the brother to comedian Charlie Chase. This film features no one but Laurel and Hardy. Though this was done before in Early to Bed, it was very rare. In this film they played their own kids as well as their regular characters. Like many of Laurel and Hardy's talkies multiple versions of this film were made. A silent version, an English langue talkie version (the one you are about to see) and foreign langue versions (for which Laurel and Hardy themselves read off of cue cards with the dialogue written phonetically). This is a great short so enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mxjmf_mIuw
Moe Howard's wife Helen suggested the story line for Hoi Polloi, one of the three stooges best films. However when she was asked if she would rather have money or screen credit she took the money.
In Fredrico Fellini's The White Sheik, the director's excellent first solo directorial feature, a star of one of Fellini's great coming classics showed up in a small cameo. This was the character Cabiria (played by the director's wife Guilietta Masina) who would later become the main character of The Nights of Cabiria, one of Fellini's many master pieces. It is also with noting that some of Nino Rota's musical score for the film would later be used in Fellini's La Starda (La Starda is one of my favorite movies ever made which makes this connection all the cooler for me).
Buster Keaton's first feature Three Ages was made so that it could be cut up into three shorts if it did not do well, to help make back some money. However the film was a hit and Buster would make more ambitious features in the future.
Lost in Alaska with Abbott and Costello was the first film in which composer Henri Mancini worked. He would later go on to immortality for composing the Pink Panther theme.
Though Charlie Chaplin's The Circus was released in 1928, ideas for the film had been going around Charlie's head since 1920.
Edna Purviance one of Charlie Chaplin's earliest leading ladies stayed on Chaplin's payroll well after she retired. Charlie had great respect for Edna and even directed the drama film A Woman of Paris, her first staring role and produced her A Woman of the Sea, her only other staring role. Unfortunately A Woman of the Sea is now a lost film, and A Woman of Paris is an underrated classic.
A 1921 silent film called Humor Risk was the film debut of The Marx Brothers, unfortunately this is a lost film today.
It's time to take a look at one of the most successful studios of the silent era, The Keystone Studio, and it's films.
Our first film today is The Water Nymph. Released in 1912, this was the first film the studio released. Mack Sennett started his career at the Biograph Studio, a studio founded by D.W. Griffith himself. D.W. Griffith never understood comedy, and because of this Mack Sennett never fully got to be himself as a filmmaker. This is one of the main reasons Mack Sennett founded the Keystone Studio. Sennett directed this film himself, it was somewhat a remake of a film he had made at Biograph in 1911 called The Diving Girl. However The Water Nymph is much rowdier and more comedic than the previous short. This film stars Sennett, Mabel Normand (who was also in The Diving Girl), and Ford Sterling. The beautiful and talented Mabel Normand in her one piece bathing suit, would later give birth to Mack Sennett's bathing beauties, a later staple of Keystone films. It is hard to understand today, why this film was so revolutionary, but 1912 audiences had never seen such a mixture of slapstick and sex (tame compared to modern films) on the movie screen before. However this does not stop it from being quite entertaining still.
Many stars got their start in films at the Keystone studios, including W.C. Feilds, Fatty Arbuckle, Ben Trupin, Harry Langdon, Harold Lloyd, Marie Dressler and Charlie Chaplin. One of Chaplin's best films from his time at Keystone was our next short, Dough and Dynamite. Released in 1914, Chaplin's first year in films, it is obvious that his own style of comedy was already becoming evident. This film has no trouble taking it's time and slowing down the pace to make the slapstick even funnier, something that was not evident at all in his first few films at Keystone. This film was directed by Charlie Chaplin, and written by Mack Sennett. Chaplin did not start off directing his own films, but he became increasing unhappy with his directors to the point where he asked if he could direct his own films. After this he would very rarely star in any film that wasn't directed by himself.
Next we are going to look at an early film for a group that Keystone is highly associated with
Keystone, and this was the Keystone Cops. The Keystone Cops first appearance had been in a 1912 film called Hoffmeyer's Legacy, but this film is still often called their first film, and it was the one that popularized the team. Despite popular belief the cops were hardly ever the stars of their films. Like Mighty Mouse would later they usually didn't even appear until near the end of the films. This film's real star is Mabel Normand instead. The lineup for the Keystone Cops would often change from film to film, here they are played by Fred Mace, Charles Avery, Rube Miller, Edgar Kennedy, Jack Leonard, and Fred Happ. This film is directed by Henry Lehrman who was one of the most prolific Keystone directors. So from 1913, here is Bangville Police.
Our last film tonight is one of the classic Mack Sennett produced shorts staring Harry Langdon. It is Soldier Man from 1926. Langdon was in his prime at this time, and he already had his trusty crew behind him. This crew included director, Harry Edwards, and writers Arthur Ripley and Frank Capra (yes the Frank Capra who later directed It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington). Also playing a supporting role is someone who would be very familiar to my fellow Three Stooges watchers, actor Vernon Dent, who appeared in quite a few films with Langdon at this time. What is also very interesting about this film is that it's opening scenes are quite similar with those that opened the latter Laurel and Hardy feature Blockheads. What makes that interesting is that Harry Langdon would be a writer for that film. Anyway this is a very funny short that shows just how great the team of Langon, Edwards, Capra, and Ripley could be at their best. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x23dghg_soldier-man-1926-harry-langdon-harry-edwards_shortfilms
76 years ago today Bugs Bunny first hopped onto movie screens. Since this he has become one of the most famous and beloved cartoon stars in the world. To celebrate his birthday today we are going to look at some great Bugs Bunny shorts.
