Phil Posner wrote:So how about a report on Slapsticon and the new Chaplin film?
Here's one from a fan's perspective. I'd put my back out on Monday, so it was a bit of a struggle walking around all crooked and in (minor) pain, but it was worth going. Saw a lot of cool stuff:
Thursday night: arrived in time to see "Too Many Kisses" (1925) with Richard Dix and Harpo in his movie debut. The film was actually shot in Astoria (same studio used for "Cocoanuts" and "Animal Crackers"), not Hollywood like Joe Adamson wrote in his book. Harpo is credited on screen as "the Village Peter Pan" - which basically means he pretty much plays himself. Adamson also wrote that Harpo gets pushed around in every scene: also wrong. It only happens once, and Harpo gets his revenge (in the scene that appears in "The Unknown Marx Brothers." And, in all fairness, I suspect Adamson was relying on second-hand info when he wrote his book). When Richard Dix gets sent to the Basque country (between France and Spain), he arrives while the locals are taking their siesta. We get a brief medium shot of Harpo sleeping, cooling himself with a fan that he's holding with his foot. After that, except for a few crowd shots, he disappears for a few reels. He mysteriously shows up in the middle, playing a ladder like a guitar and mimicking the villian, who's been serenading the heroine. The villain enlists him to carry the ladder so he can climb to the heroine's balcony. Then Harpo's gone for another long stretch, until he shows up near the end at the villain's home. Those are the scenes that are in "The Unknown Marx Brothers." And he does "talk" in the film, via two subtitles.
Friday had two highlights: reel two of Stan Laurel's "When Knights Were Cold" (1923) and Roscoe Arbuckle's first starring feature, "The Round-Up" (1920). The Laurel excerpt was a continuous laugh - some of the best sight gags this side of Larry Semon. (They also showed an edited-down one-reel version of Semon's "The Barnyard," and it was the usual collection of pratfalls, ladders, mudbaths for Babe Hardy and airplane gags... and, yes, it was still funny.) The "horses" that Stan described to John McCabe were hysterical. Laurel did his usual thing where he looks at the camera and laughs at the havoc he's created, but for some reason it worked. I think it was because the gags were so good, that Stan came across as the silent comedy equivalent of Bugs Bunny turning to us and saying, "Ain't I a stinker?" Whatever; the crowd loved it.
The Arbuckle feature was a straight western, with only some light comedy courtesy of the star. A little slapstick when Arbuckle, who plays the town sheriff, tries to dress in a suit to attend a wedding, and it's too small for him. Other than that, he's playing the drama straight, and the film ends on a note of pathos when he doesn't get the girl who'd been flirting with him. "Aw, what's the use? Nobody loves a fat man." This was the one where Keaton did a bit as an Indian.
Speaking of Keaton, Saturday they surprised us with a clip from what is believed to be his final TV appearance: a Canadian panel show called "Flashbacks," on which he appeared while making "The Scribe." The panelists asked him questions about his career and he was really good, although his voice was starting to go from the cancer. One panelist talked about the cyclone scene in "Steamboat Bill Jr." and asked Keaton how it was done. "Oh, we just did it." "Well, did you measure where you had to stand?" Keaton says, "Oh, you better believe we measured it!" and after the laugh he describes in full what was done before the building fascade fell over. T'was a wonderful clip.
On Saturday afternoon, the prize went to Charley Chase's "Modern Love" (1929). He carried himself quite well in both the silent and sound sequences, but - in one great scene - Anita Garvin, in a supporting role, absolutely stole the picture. It's a little difficult to describe, but Charley is posing as a waiter and giving bogus instructions in dining etiquette to a Frenchman who wants to take his wife to Europe. Meanwhile, the dinner guests (one of whom is Garvin), can't see Charley and think that this is normal French dining etiquette, so they mimick him. Each "instruction" is more ludicrous than the last, and got big laughs - but Garvin topped them all with her facial expressions of disbelief and disgust. I'm betting Hal Roach remembered that, and is part of the reason why he had no faith in Chase carrying a full-length film.
The highlight, of course, was "A Thief Catcher." It was great - a neat little Keystone anecdote. Chaplin was instantly recognizable even in Kop garb, and his bit was very funny.
A brief no-spoilers summary of the plot: Ford Sterling, in his regular clothes but sporting a star on his chest, photographs a couple of thugs beating up a third man and tossing him off the side of a hill. They spot him, so Ford flees and ducks into an old barn. Unfortunately for him, it's the thugs' hideout. Things go from bad to worse, even when two cops on the beat check out the scene, and it's up to Ford's little dog to come to his rescue. Chaplin is one of the two cops, and he gets clobbered on the head by one of the thugs when he tries to look in the barn - the frame capture that's been circulating is part of his reaction to the clobbering.
We were told that there's going to be a new DVD set covering Mack Sennett's entire career from a company called CineMuseum, and that "A Thief Catcher" will be included.
The "Mutual Out-takes reel," which came from Paul Killiam's collection, consisted of one alternate take each of two scenes from "The Count," followed by those scenes as they appeared in the finished film. Naturally, the finished version got big laughs. The whole Chaplin presentation went over extremely well with a near-capacity crowd in the theater.
Those were the most memorable highlights. I'm sure the others will have their own take on it. All I can say in summary is: Don't miss the next one!
Michael