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Post by StevePulaski on May 8, 2015 14:05:23 GMT -5
Leading Lizzie Astray (1914)
Directed by: Roscoe Arbuckle  Rating: ★★½ , one of the many Fatty Arbuckle shorts produced for the film company Keystone, opens with a city slicker (Ed Brady) driving through town when his car gets a flat tire. A local boy (Arbuckle) and his fiancee (Minta Durfee), who happen to walk by, lend a hand to the man, who proceeds to try and pick up the boy's fiancee. The man attempts to get the woman to venture back to town with her, an offer she accepts, for she sees the glamor of the city being more attractive than her options at home, much to the dismay of the boy. Depressed and lonely, the boy attempts to win back his wife by venturing into the big city. Leading Lizzie Astray gets a lot of early silent filmmaking conventions down right, from the quick editing to the cheap but effective special effects (there's a great scene of a piano crashing into a wall), but forgets the magic of the formula that this story provides. When the local boy travels to the city, he is a fish walking on land, and Arbuckle, who serves as writer/director here, forgets to incorporate that kind of alienation into his story. It's a frustrating feature, and it could've saved the film from being an assembly of slapstick comedy. Early Keystone shorts were known for their scuzzy aesthetic and bare-bones plot, yet some quality standard has to be achieved with these films. Arbuckle is one of several early comedians who never got his recognition, mostly due to a murder allegation, and with that, Leading Lizzie Astray is one that was inevitably swept under the rug as one of his weaker offerings. Starring: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Minta Durfee, and Ed Brady. Directed by: Roscoe Arbuckle. |
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Post by StevePulaski on May 8, 2015 14:12:20 GMT -5
The Rounders (1914)
Directed by: Charlie Chaplin  Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Charlie Chaplin. Rating: ★★½ There is certainly a group of people that would bill the 1914 short film The Rounders as comedic gold, but to me, it seems more like two great, even legendary, comedic actors slumming or going through the motions. The Rounders, to Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Charlie Chaplin, seems nothing more than a warmup for larger, more thoughtful shorts and full-length features. It's perfectly safe and innocence, as nearly all comic shorts were during this time period, but for two large names comes a great deal of expectations that The Rounders barely fulfills. We watch Arbuckle and Chaplin stumble around town drunk, fighting with their girlfriends and eventually being chased out of town by other townspeople following Arbuckle attempting to strangle his wife after she hits him. That element alone is a bit extreme, especially for a film of this era, and Arbuckle and Chaplin simply do not funnel the same kind of energy into the story or the gags to back something like that up. The Rounders winds up having an entertaining final minutes because things finally pick up and become pleasantly manic. However, at the same time, sitting and watching Arbuckle and Chaplin stumble their way through town isn't so funny when one recalls what these actors have done and would go on to do later in their careers. For them, this was an impromptu warmup exercise on the set of a film in comparison to their other works. Starring: Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Directed by: Charlie Chaplin. |
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Post by StevePulaski on May 11, 2015 16:42:34 GMT -5
Ambrose's First Falsehood (1914)
Directed by: F. Richard Jones  Rating: ★★★ concerns its titular character in a classic example of fooling his wife so he can embark on an adventure of his own, but of course, an unforeseen misunderstanding renders his alibi corrupted. Our hero is played by Mack Swain, boasting a thick black mustache as he tells his wife (Minta Durfee) that he'll be taking a plane for business when he'll really be at the local tavern. Later that day, Mrs. Ambrose learns that the plane her husband said he'd be on had crashed with no known survivors remaining. She is heartbroken, but by the time that rolls around, Ambrose is too stone-cold drunk to really care, until he himself learns of his presumed fate. Swain is a charismatic individual, a trait he effectively conveys despite having no sound to work with whatsoever. The only drawback is, like many early Keystone shorts, the use of dialog cards is minimal and vague. Nonetheless, Swain works with what he has, and manages to be a very engaging performer throughout. Ambrose's First Falsehood works largely because of how relatable it is and how it uses its common premise as a grounds for very natural comedy. Its comedy is much more low-key than many other shorts of its time. Its humor is more humble, and when it does venture into slapsticky territory towards the end, we notice the jarring shift because of how the bulk of the film's comedy before that was built around situational familiarity. I've always loved how the earliest of film shorts were inherently subversive, as directors and writers were simultaneously playing with storytelling ideas in addition to finding technical tropes, and here, we get a taste of how comedy continued to be subverted with the dawn of cinema. Starring: Mack Swain and Minta Durfee. Directed by: F. Richard Jones. |
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Post by StevePulaski on May 16, 2015 14:22:51 GMT -5
The Knockout (1914)
Directed by: Charles Avery  Charlie Chaplin finds himself refereeing a boxing match in The Knockout. Rating: ★★★ , like other Keystone shorts of the 1910's, combines two comedic legends in one short film. We center around Pug (Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle), a boxer who is planning to face off against the renowned Cyclone Flynn (Edgar Kennedy). With the help of his girlfriend (Minta Durfee), Pug trains to beat the boxer until, upon getting into the ring, he is greeted with the goofiest of referees (Charlie Chaplin). The comedy here stems directly from the slapstick breed, making The Knockout incredibly kinetic and fun. It's never too reliant on one breed of comedy and, again, typical for the Keystone shorts, toys with the roles and personalities of its characters. Nothing is ever too linear here and everything winds up being a ribald blast of energy, especially for Chaplin. Chaplin's referee character doesn't come into play until the second half of the short, but when he does, he provides for another element of the diverse comic abilities of the Keystone company. Playing with comedic tropes and having two great performers at the forefront, The Knockout is among one of the big winners for the company. Starring: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Edgar Kennedy, Minta Durfee, and Charlie Chaplin. Directed by: Charles Avery. |
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Post by StevePulaski on May 20, 2015 14:20:19 GMT -5
Hash House Mashers (1915)
Directed by: Mack Sennett
Rating: ★★★ Mack Sennett's Hash House Mashers is a remake of an earlier short of Sennett's by the name of Helen's Marriage, which was filmed back in 1912. Like that short, this one concerns a young man (Charley Chase), who attempts to marry another young woman (Virginia Chester) despite the disapproval of her domineering father (Frank Opperman). The way he goes about finally sealing the deal with the love of his life is probably one of the most elaborate and deceptive acts of trickery I've yet to see, and goes far beyond the classic cliche of eloping to Las Vegas. Hash House Mashers continues to toy with relatable ideas such as marriage, eloping, and relationships, such as a great deal of these early Keystone/Mack Sennett-produced shorts do. They're blink-and-you-miss-it efforts that were churned out so quickly in their day it's the old equivalent of a Youtube sketch comedy show churning out several shows a week: some hit, some miss, some land comfortably in the middle, some go on to endure obscurity, and some go on to achieve success. Hash House Mashers finds itself lodged into obscurity, but with an early performance of Charley Chase under its belt, on top of a wry premise, it claims more than several other silent films of the era could. It's a zippy little effort that capitalizes on the uniform talent of everyone involved, particularly Chase, who gives a taste of what he'd become throughout this film with his quick-witted comedy and zealous performing skills. Starring: Charley Chase, Virginia Chester, and Frank Opperman. Directed by: Mack Sennett. |
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