Classic Film Comedy Short Stories #8

A film that Charlie Chaplin wanted to make but never did was a film about the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, with himself playing Napoleon himself.

 Before he became a director, George Steven (The Diary of Anne Frank, Shane, The Greatest Story Ever Told) was a cinematographer on many Laurel and Hardy films.

In an effort to top the emotional impact of his own City Lights, Charlie Chaplin's originally scripted ending for Modern Times, involved the Gamin becoming a nun, and the tramp meeting her in the hospital after having another mental breakdown. He dropped this ending for the one that appears in the film today.   

When legendary silent comedian Harry Langdon became less popular an actor, he would also write for various comedy films. These films would include 4 Laurel and Hardy films; Block Heads, Flying Deuces, A Chump at Oxford, and Saps at Sea.

Before doing the films he is known for now Frank Capra (It's A Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) worked as both a writer and director for films staring Harry Langdon.

Though Harold Lloyd's characters often times had the first name Harold, the only time he played a character named Harold Lloyd was in Safety Last.  Though in much of the intertitles he is just referred to as the boy, on his paycheck you can clearly see the name Harold Lloyd.

Bill Strother who played Harold Lloyd's building climbing friend in Safety Last was actually a real building climber, and after Lloyd saw him performing this act, he came up with the idea for the film.



  -Michael J. Ruhland

Classic Film Comedy Short Stories #7

 One of the first images that may come to ones mind when they hear Laurel and Hardy is the two carrying a piano up a flight of stairs. Before this film the duo appeared in another film in which they carried a washing machine up the same flight of stairs and had much of the same trouble. This 1927 film has unfortunately been lost, but some screen shots still exist such as the one I included here. The film was named Hats Off.


Universal did not want Lou Costello to do his own stunt work, so much of the stunt work was done by Lou's older brother Pat Costello. You can see Pat along side his brother in the film Mexican Hayride. He would also be a producer on the film Jack and the Beanstalk staring Abbott and Costello. He would also be a producer for The Abbott and Costello Show for TV.

Lou Costello was a great athlete and in the film Here Come the Co-eds, he had done nearly all of the complicated basketball shorts in the movie.

Charlie Chaplin did not get along with his City Lights costar Virginia Cherrill. After she showed up late one day Chaplin wanted to fire her from the movie. He was going to replace her with Georgia Hale who had costarred with Chaplin in The Gold Rush. However she still costars in the film because too much time and money was spent on scenes with her in them, he decided not to re-shoot.

Though Buster Keaton did nearly all of his stunts in his independently produced films. The only exception to this is his character's s amazing pole vault into his sweetheart's room in College.


-Michael J. Ruhland

Classic Film Comedy Short Stories #6

Even though he never received director's credit on any Laurel and Hardy film, Stan Laurel often times worked very closely with the director, and basically co-directed many of these films.

Director Leo McCarey is the only person to take credit for teaming Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

During the making of The Time of Their Lives(1946), Lou Costello called director Charles Barton saying, he should play Bud Abbott's part. Barton said there was simply to much of the film already shot to do this. Costello didn't come to work for a little bit, but Barton called his bluff. When Lou Costello came back on set, he never mentioned this incident and continued the part originally written for him.

 Buster Keaton was known for taking huge risks for the stunts of his films. In the scene of "Steamboat Bill Jr." in which the front of a building falls towards and he is safe because he stood where an open window was, he made a piratically big risk in fact many on the set feared for Keaton's life because if things went wrong he could have easily died.



After years of being an independent filmmaker Buster Keaton moved to MGM mainly for finical reasons. However he soon found himself treated as just an actor, and was no longer able to direct his own films. He became very unhappy with many of the films he acted in, and would call this the worst decision he ever made. Interestingly though even though he acted in many sub-par films for MGM, his first film at MGM, The Cameraman, is in fact a masterpiece.

In the film A Day at the Races, Groucho Marx's character was originally named Dr. Quackenbush. However MGM's legal department found out that there were real doctors with that name so to avoid offending anyone the name Dr. Hackenbush was used instead. Groucho often called this character the best one he ever played.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Happy 125th Birthday to Stan Laurel

If he were alive today Stan Laurel would be 125 years young. Stan Laurel was of course one of the greatest comedians in the history of film, and when he was teamed with Oliver Hardy his career only got better. Today we are going to look at four silent short films that celebrate the great talent of this man.

Laurel and Hardy were one of the only (If not the only) comedy teams to first appear together on film (rather than  Vaudeville, Radio, or Broadway). Both in fact had fairly successful film careers before teaming up. Stan Laurel acted in many parodies of famous films of the time. One of the funniest of these films was 1925's Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pride. This was a parody of the 1920 film Dr. Jeckel and Mr.Hyde, directed by John S. Robertson an staring John Barrymore. So from 1925, directed by Joe Rock and Scott Pembroke, and staring Stan Laurel, here is Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pride:

  

Stan Laurel was not only an actor he was a director as well. One of the films he directed featured Oliver Hardy, an instance of them working together before they teamed up. The star of this film is Jimmy Finlayson who would later play the foil to Laurel and Hardy in some of their best films (Both shorts and features). An expression of his would also be used as an inspiration for Homer Simpson's "Do'h". It is great to see him play the lead in a film and he does it well. Well this may not be the best film any of these talents worked on it is highly amusing in it's own right. So from 1925, directed by Stan Laurel and Clarence Hennecke, and staring Jimmy Finlayson, Oliver Hardy (credited by his nickname Babe), Sue O'Neil, and Jack Gavin, here is Yes, Yes Nanette:

 

Next is the first film in which Laurel and Hardy worked as a team. Although they had appeared together before this they had not worked as a team. This film is called Duck Soup, and one of the film's directors was Leo McCarey who would later direct The Marx Brothers in Duck Soup. The story of this short was based off a sketch written by a music hall comedian named Arthur Jefferson, who was in fact Stan Laurel's father. This film was remade 3 years later also with Laurel and Hardy and called Another Fine Mess. So from 1927 directed by Fred Guiol, and Leo McCarey, and staring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, here is Duck Soup:

 Our last film is a treat considered to be one of Laurel and Hardy's best silent films, directed by James Parrott, and Leo McCarey, and staring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy here is Two Tars:

 

-Michael J. Ruhland

Happy 85th Birthday to Looney Tunes

April 19th, 1930, what would become the greatest series of short films, and the greatest series  of cartoons would enjoy it's first cartoon's first theatrical release. The series would be Looney Tunes, and the cartoon would be "Sinkin' in the Bathtub".

This film was made before the familiar characters of Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, and so on, would be created. The staring character for this cartoon was Bosko. One of the most groundbreaking things about Bosko was the use of synchronized dialog. While sound cartoons had existed before this, none of them, not even Disney, had been able to accomplish with synchronized dialog, what these Bosko cartoon had accomplished.

The Creators of Bosko were Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising. Both had worked with Walt Disney, mainly on the Alice Comedies, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons. After they left Walt, they constantly wanted to compete with Disney on his own terms. While these two men were great pioneers of animation, and great talents in their own right, this led them to spend much of there time trying to be as much like Disney as possible. Because of this Bosko, despite being a really likable character, was mostly a Mickey Mouse imitator, and a thinly disguised one at that. On top of that jokes were often reused from Oswald cartoons, they themselves had worked on, such as the joke of a big Bosko breaking into a bunch of little Boskos (used in this film). However despite a lack of originality in this cartoon (Besides the synchronized dialog), this film is a very fun and enjoyable cartoon, even to early Disney fans who might recognize most of this from other cartoons. This is because it is done with such talent it kind of doesn't matter how original or not it is.

This film also has animation by Friz Freling and Robert Mckimson, who would stay with Looney Tunes all the way into the 1960's (Robert Mckimson would in fact direct "Injun Trouble" from 1969, which would be the last Looney Tunes cartoon). Also animating on this cartoon were Norm Blackburn, Ham Hamilton, Paul J. Smith and Carmen Maxwell (also the voice of Bosko)

So here is "Sinkin' in the Bathtub"

-Michael J. Ruhland

Daffy Duck, star of film, video games and comic books, turns 78.

On April 17th, 1937, movie going audiences were introduced to one of the silver screen's greatest stars (ask him yourself and he'll agree). This star however did not appear in a feature film that day, but rather in a short film accompanying that picture. This film was called Porky's Duck Hunt, and the star it introduced was Daffy Duck. As many film and animation historians have noted this was the character that put the looney in Looney Tunes. rarely before had a movie going audience seen this level of wackiness in a cartoon.

However Daffy's debut was not the only important historical note about this film. This cartoon also marked the first time Mel Blanc voiced Porky Pig. Previously Porky's voice had been done by Joe Dougherty. Dougherty really stuttered and unfortunately could not control it. This ate up to much film and these were short films to begin with, so not much time could be spared. So he was with this cartoon replaced by Mel Blanc, who also did the voice for Daffy.

This cartoon was directed by Tex Avery (credited as Fred Avery). Tex was known for revolutionizing the style of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. With his influence these series got away from imitating Disney, and went on to do things Disney would never do (breaking the 4th wall, exaggerated gags). With him these series and the whole cartoon industry changed.

One of the animators on this cartoon was Bob Clampett (later to become a great director). Tex told him to have Daffy exit anyway Bob could think of. His idea was to having Daffy jump across the screen "Woo-Hooing" This would of course become one of Daffy's trademarks.

So here is Porky's Duck Hunt:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=porky%27s+duck+hunt+1937&view=detail&mid=C15AE904AD10F3399685C15AE904AD10F3399685&FORM=VIRE

-Michael J. Ruhland

Charlie Chaplin Carnival #2

We are going to start our second look at Chaplin's work with an early Keystone short from 1914. This film was directed by Mabel Normand (one of the forgotten greats of silent comedy). Chaplin and her did not see eye to eye on comedy. Mabel and Charlie's arguments got so heated that Mack Sennet (Boss at Keystone) considered firing Chaplin. However Sennet got messages asking for more Chaplin shorts, so he couldn't fire Charlie. He instead tried to patch thing up between director and actor. It worked and the film turned out to be a quite enjoyable one. However, in hindsight, you can see where this film differs for Chaplin's sense of comedy. The character he plays here makes it seem like Charlie is doing an imitation of Ford Sterling (leader of the Keystone Kops). The next film with Chaplin would be "Twenty Minutes of Love", which would mark the first time Charlie would direct himself. So from 1914, here is "Mabel At The Wheel".

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBH3Mj2wxaE

Before his film career Charlie Chaplin was a part of the Karno Company (Along with Stan Laurel), an English comedy group that performed on stage. One of their most popular skits was called Mumming Birds. In 1915 Chaplin starred in, wrote and directed a film version of this skit, entitled "A Night in the Show", and here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvdy1qxqlrE

Last for this look at Chaplin is the film that he considered his best short. This is also his last short film (The Pilgrim is technically a feature). While it is hard to say whether or not this is his best short (Some of his other shorts are just too good to say that for sure). This is also a completely comedic film with no drama. While this may seem normal for comedy films, Chaplin was at this time excelling in combining comedy and drama, so it is a bit strange that he would make this film at this time. However funny is funny regardless of drama, and this is a really funny film. So from 1922, and directed by Chaplin himself, here is Pay Day.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ast6629RiVg

-Michael J. Ruhland