Two Weiss Bros. Questions

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Tommie Hicks
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Two Weiss Bros. Questions

Postby Tommie Hicks » Mon Mar 21, 2016 10:15 pm

What Aubrey is this? I'm pretty sure it's a Weiss Bros.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUzalei ... &index=107

Question number two: What is the name of the Weiss Bros. Pollard and Lobach film that has them delivering a washing machine to a house up a long flight of stairs?

Thanks.

Richard M Roberts
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Re: Two Weiss Bros. Questions

Postby Richard M Roberts » Mon Mar 21, 2016 10:20 pm

Tommie Hicks wrote:What Aubrey is this? I'm pretty sure it's a Weiss Bros.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUzalei ... &index=107

Question number two: What is the name of the Weiss Bros. Pollard and Lobach film that has them delivering a washing machine to a house up a long flight of stairs?

Thanks.


The Aubrey is ALIBI ALLEY (1927) which is on the WEISS-O-RAMA set.

Who said there is a Pollard-Lobach that has them delivering a washing machine to a house up a long flight of stairs? They deliver a piano in DOUBLE TROUBLE, but I don't recall a Pollard-Lobach rip-off of HATS OFF, though that would make perfect sense as they ripped off everything else.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Tommie Hicks
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Re: Two Weiss Bros. Questions

Postby Tommie Hicks » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:20 pm

Well, I am getting old, I've had WEISSORAMA for years.

I have heard about the Pollard-Lobach HATS OFF rip off for years. I thought I would have seen it by now if it did exist, that's why I asked about it. Here is the most complete list of Pollard Weiss Bros films I've been able to cobble together:

THE DOUGHBOY
FIRE
THE YOKEL
ALL WET
ONCE OVER
THE BUM’S RUSH
MITT THE PRINCE
THE BIG SHOT
DOUBLE TROUBLE
MEN ABOUT TOWN
THICK AND THIN
HERE COMES A SAILOR
SPRINGTIME SAPS
SOCK AND RUN
NO KIDDING

Are there any more?

I've seen all but HERE COMES A SAILOR and I wonder if ALL WET and THE YOKEL are the same film.

Richard M Roberts
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Re: Two Weiss Bros. Questions

Postby Richard M Roberts » Tue Mar 22, 2016 4:27 am

Tommie Hicks wrote:Well, I am getting old, I've had WEISSORAMA for years.

I have heard about the Pollard-Lobach HATS OFF rip off for years. I thought I would have seen it by now if it did exist, that's why I asked about it. Here is the most complete list of Pollard Weiss Bros films I've been able to cobble together:

THE DOUGHBOY
FIRE
THE YOKEL
ALL WET
ONCE OVER
THE BUM’S RUSH
MITT THE PRINCE
THE BIG SHOT
DOUBLE TROUBLE
MEN ABOUT TOWN
THICK AND THIN
HERE COMES A SAILOR
SPRINGTIME SAPS
SOCK AND RUN
NO KIDDING

Are there any more?

I've seen all but HERE COMES A SAILOR and I wonder if ALL WET and THE YOKEL are the same film.


That's all the Pollard Weiss titles I know of. Supposedly there is at least one sound Weiss short starring Pollard called PIPE DOWN that was filmed at the Lee Deforest studios on the East Coast when the Weiss's took over control of them and made some films in 1929-30, but I have never known prints to actually exist of this title or whether it was actually released.

Actually yes, THE YOKEL and ALL WET are different films, and we have Blackhawk Films to thank for causing the confusion. They released ALL WET under the title THE YOKEL for some reason or another, (their master material may not have had any opening titles), and so this mistake has been perpetrated ever since. The real YOKEL would have been on WEISS-O-RAMA II, if there had been a WEISS-O-RAMA II, which there wasn't.

Here's HERE COMES A SAILOR with Italian intertitles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8JXaSENcXY


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Tommie Hicks
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Re: Two Weiss Bros. Questions

Postby Tommie Hicks » Tue Mar 22, 2016 9:48 am

The LOC has a second reel of a Weiss sound film where where they rip-off THAT"S MY WIFE. Pollard does the drag bit and wears no mustache in this one. The supporting cast was unknown to me making me think its east coast. The film has a musical interlude with a white jazz band.

Richard M Roberts
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Re: Two Weiss Bros. Questions

Postby Richard M Roberts » Tue Mar 22, 2016 11:56 am

Tommie Hicks wrote:The LOC has a second reel of a Weiss sound film where where they rip-off THAT"S MY WIFE. Pollard does the drag bit and wears no mustache in this one. The supporting cast was unknown to me making me think its east coast. The film has a musical interlude with a white jazz band.



That could be PIPE DOWN, or there could have been more than one sound short made, the Deforest part of the Weiss history is hazy and the paperwork does not seem to have survived in the Weiss files. Late 1929-30 was also a hazy period in Snub Pollard's history (maybe Andrew Scholl can chime in), so it is hard to tell how long Snub spent back east working for Weiss. I have Weiss stills of Snub in drag, without Lobach and no other known actors in the shots, so I have always figured that was from one of the talkies.

The Weiss Brothers did make several features at the Deforest Studios, several of which still survive, but it was basically a bust and they had sold off the studios by the early 30's.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Joe Migliore
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Re: Two Weiss Bros. Questions

Postby Joe Migliore » Tue Mar 22, 2016 6:22 pm

I really enjoyed seeing that Bud Duncan Weiss Brothers short at the last Slapsticon, though it had sustained some damage. (At the time I was still hoping for a second collection of Weiss-O-Rama, and wondering if SOUR MILK would be included.) Did he work there long, or was it a one-off?

Richard M Roberts
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Re: Two Weiss Bros. Questions

Postby Richard M Roberts » Tue Mar 22, 2016 6:55 pm

Joe Migliore wrote:I really enjoyed seeing that Bud Duncan Weiss Brothers short at the last Slapsticon, though it had sustained some damage. (At the time I was still hoping for a second collection of Weiss-O-Rama, and wondering if SOUR MILK would be included.) Did he work there long, or was it a one-off?


Bud Duncan was a a Weiss Brothers regular from 1927-29, doing both support and starring in various shorts (he did a one-reel series produced by William Pizor for the Weiss's that teamed him with Marvin Lobach before the Pollard series). Kit Parker has beautiful undamaged material on SOUR MILK, so it might have been on WEISS-O-RAMA II if there had been one (but it ain't happenin folks, don't hold your breaths).


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Andrew Sholl
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Re: Two Weiss Bros. Questions

Postby Andrew Sholl » Wed Mar 23, 2016 12:42 am

Tommie, Richard

The plan was for a series of a dozen two-reel talkies starring Snub Pollard to be shot at the old DeForest Phonofilm studio. The Weiss Brothers had taken over management of the studio in April 1929. Snub arrived on the East Coast in June and production was slated to begin the following month.

But it looks as if only two of these pictures entered production: HERE WE ARE and PIPE DOWN, and the latter is the only entry in the series to have made it into theatres. The plot involved “two gobs hunting for girls” and the end result was described by Variety as being fit for “the filler spot only in neighbourhood grinds”.

Credits and cast:
Produced by Weiss Artclass/DeForest Phonofilms
Directed by Leslie Goodwins
With Snub Pollard, Jack Kearney, Jane Beach, Gunboat Smith
Dialogue by Charles Champlion [?] or Bert Ennis
Photography by Tom Molloy, Irving Browning
Song: “I’ll Do Anything for You”.
Length: two reels
Release date: September 1929

As for the rest of the Pollard/Weiss filmography, the only other entry I can think of would be KOO-KOO KNIGHTS from the 1926-27 series. (Kit Parker has a print of this).

For clarity’s sake, there appear to have been three separate Pollard/Weiss series – 6 pictures made for the 1926-27 season; 10 pictures for 1928-29 (of which some were released with synchronized sound); and the abortive talkie series.


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