Keystone Karnival #2

You know what time it is. Of course you do... It's Keystone Time. Yep we are going to look at some more shorts from the Keystone studio.

First up is A Busy Day, a film staring the biggest name to come out of Keystone, Charlie Chaplin. While Charlie would later leave Keystone and go to make some of the best comedy films of all time, he got his start at the Keystone studio. He worked at the studio only for the year 1914, however a lot happened during this year. He had his first film role, he adopted the Tramp costume, he started directing his own films and he acted in Tillie's Punctured Romance (the first known feature length comedy). When making A Busy Day, he had not begun directing yet, instead this film is directed by the head of Keystone Studios himself, Mack Sennett. Also while he had appeared in the Tramp costume by this time (starting with Kid Auto Races in Venice), he had not truly adopted the costume and the character was far from realized. In this film he does not appear in that costume but rather in drag, actually playing a woman, with Mack Swain (who would later play Big Jim McCay in Chaplin's The Gold Rush). While this is far from one of Charlie Chaplin's best films, it is an entertaining little romp, and a fascinating look into the early career of one of comedy film's greatest masters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gfMWt1oj7c

Probably the best teaming of stars at Keystone was the teaming of Mabel Normand and Fatty "Roscoe" Arbuckle. The two had perfect chemistry together and it was always a joy seeing them share the screen. Up next is my favorite pairing of the two, Fatty and Mabel's Simple Life from 1915. This short shows a bit of sweetness in the characters that is unusual in Keystone films, that actually tuned up multiple times in the shorts that teamed these two up. It works in these films because of the talent these two stars had. However this is still a slapstick comedy at heart, featuring much of the typical Keystone sense of humor, and much of it is quite funny. The film was directed by Fatty himself. So enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_T80QoRLIs

By the time this last short (1924) was made, the studio had changed it's name to Mack Sennett Comedies. This short stars the studios latest big star, Harry Langdon, who Mack Sennett felt was the greatest comedian he ever worked with. This is one of Harry's best shorts a mini masterpiece called All Night Long. The film was directed by Harry Edwards and written by Arthur Ripley, two of Harry's best collaborators. Despite Frank Capra often times given himself credit for creating Harry's character, this film was done before he ever worked on a film with Harry Langdon, and it is obvious that the character is fully developed here. While hints of Harry's character showed up in earlier films, this is one of the earliest (and arguably the earliest) times that every thing came together perfectly. This film also has the slower pacing and offbeat humor that is shown in Harry's best work. This may be one of the greatest live action short comedies ever made so enjoy, a lot.
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D4kt55ezsE

-Michael J. Ruhland

Classic Film Comedy Short Stories #12

It's been a while since I have done one of these. So a quick reminder this is a mixture of trivia and short stories about classic film comedy (1912.-1955). This was inspired by the Animation Antidotes posts on Cartoon research.com to give credit where credit is due.

French cinema and stage legend Sacha Guitry made only one published novel. This novel was adapted by Guiltry himself into his most popular film, The Story of a Cheat (1936). Most of his films were based off his own plays. Another exception to this is his film The Pearls of the Crown (1937). That film was his only story originally written (by himself) to be a movie. Both are fantastic films I highly recommend.





Director Chuck Jones had a set of rules for the coyote and roadrunner cartoons to follow (Roadrunner must stay on the road, No dialogue beyond "Beep Beep", the roadrunner must never hurt the coyote, etc.). However his main writer Michael Maltese was unaware of such rules. Coyote and roadrunner cartoons were the easiest cartoons to make for them, and therefore where often used to fill time when another cartoon was taking a longer time.

Laurel and Hardy made foreign language versions of their own films, by reading the words written phonetically off-screen. Some of these were in fact longer than the original English language version (with extra scenes added) and some combined multiple shorts together. Though it is often written that Pardon Us was the team's first feature (it was their first English language one) the first of their films to reach feature length (at least that I'm aware of) was Noche De Duendes (1930), a Spanish language version of The Laurel and Hardy Murder Case (1930) with scenes from Berthmarks added. This film was 49 minutes, and a feature is any film over 40 minutes.

When working on the film The Kid (1921), Charlie Chaplin would take Jackie Coogan (who played the title character) to an amusement park, for pony rides or whatever every Sunday. The two remained close for many years.

-Michael J. Ruhland         

Happy 76th Birthday Bugs Bunny

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...

                     -Michael J. Ruhland

Happy 126th Birthday Stan Laurel

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

-Michael J. Ruhland

Classic Film Comedy Short Stories #11

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.

-Michael J. Ruhland 

 

Keystone Karnival #1

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

-Michael J. Ruhland

Classic Film Comedy Short Stories #10

The film Smiles of a Summer Night was entered into the Cannes Film Festival without it's director Ingmar Bergman knowing. He found out is was entered when he read read the news papers talking about it.

Despite Universal being well known for horror films, the only Jekyll and Hyde film to come out of the studio was Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The Academy Awards state that to win an award a film has to play in Los Angles. Because of controversy surrounding director/star/writer/producer Charlie Chaplin during the Cold War Era, his 1952 film Limelight, was not released in L.A. until 1972. Because of this it is the only film to receive an academy award 20 years after it was completed. It received an award for it's musical score.


Animation legend Walter Lantz (Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, Chilly Willy) wanted to make a combination live action/animation feature film with the comedy team Abbott and Costello, since they were both working for Universal. Unfortunately this never came to be.

For the scene in Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush where the little Tramp seeming turns into a chicken before Big Jim McKay's (Mack Swain's) eyes, a stage hand was supposed to be in the chicken suit. However the stage hand just couldn't move the way Chaplin wanted. So Chaplin himself got into the chicken suit.

In another famous scene from Chaplin's The Gold Rush, Charlie Chaplin and Mack Swain seemingly ate a shoe for Thanksgiving dinner.Chaplin had a hard time figuring out how to make an edible shoe, until he saw kids coming out of a candy store with animal shaped licorice. Chaplin then came up with an idea, and asked someone working in the candy store if they could make a shoe out of licorice. They did. The scene was shot so many time that Mack Swain grew sick of licorice.

 Because of their success in foreign countries during the silent era, Laurel and Hardy would film their early talkies multiple times in various langues to keep popular in countries that don't speak English. They would read the words spelled phonetically off of cue-cards.

-Michael J. Ruhland