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

Classic Film Comedy Short Stories #9

One of the most famous images of classic film comedy is Charlie Chaplin doing the dance of the dinner rolls in his classic The Gold Rush. However this was performed earlier by Fatty Arbuckle in the 1917 short film, The Rough House. However Chaplin definitely brought his own unique charm to the bit.

 The underrated comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey were the first film comedy team to emerge out of the sound era, with the 1929 musical comedy Rio Rita, based off a stage play they themselves acted in. Interestingly Abbott and Costello would later star in another film version of Rio Rita, that film would be released in 1942.

For the film Blockheads, silent comedy legend Harry Langdon, drew the caricatures of Laurel and Hardy (the stars of the film) that appear in the opening credits. He also was a writer on the film.

 Though the feature film His First Flame was completed in 1925, it was not released until 1927. The film was made at the Mack Sennet studio, before the film's star Harry Langdon left for First National. Though Mack Sennet originaly did not want to release the film (It would have been the first feature starring Harry Langdon), he changed his mind after seeing the success of the feature films Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, The Strong Man, and Long Pants, all of which also stared Harry Langdon. Therefore it was released after Harry Langdon had proven himself to be successful in features.

W. C. Fields (along with staring in) wrote The Bank Dick. The writing credit for the film is given to  Mahatma Kane Jeeves. This is a fake name W. C. Fields made up. It is a play on words meaning "My Hat, My Cane Jeeves".

-Michael J. Ruhland

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