ralph celentano wrote:I enjoyed Ed Watz's WHEELER & WOOLSEY book EXCEPT for the Clark & McCullough negative comment.
In my opinion, Clark is a high energy Woolsey. As for McCullough's support, it compliments Clark.
Thanks Ralph for the nice words about my W & W book. Regarding C & McC, we agree to disagree, and I'm fine with that.
They don't annoy me like the Ben Blue/Billy Gilbert Taxi Boys series. WHAT PRICE TAXI and THUNDERING TAXIS are the 2 best shorts. No Ben Blue.
I agree on those particular Taxi Boys entries. Besides not having Ben Blue around to ruin the gags, WHAT PRICE TAXI and THUNDERING TAXIS contain those marvelous & elaborate Del Lord taxi cab sequences. Too bad their postproduction foley work was limited, proper sound effects would've boosted those shorts further (think Lord's OLD SAWBONES and others chases he staged at Columbia just a few years after this series for Roach).
I'll add THE COLUMBIA COMEDY SHORTS main fault was the panning of some amusing shorts. I'll agree that some are far from classics, but the
novice reading this book will think that most are not worth watching.
Point taken, Ralph. Keeping in mind that I was co-author on COLUMBIA COMEDY SHORTS and not responsible for the whole show, I agree with you. That book is due to for an expanded and revised edition. It was published in 1986 at a time when McFarland kept their film books to a set number of pages. About a quarter to a third of the MS was cut and we had submited at least 60 additional stills which were not included in the book. McFarland reissued it in paperback about 10 years ago without updates.
My newest RKO acquisition is the 1931 HIGH HATS AND LOW BROWS from the Rufftown series. James Gleason, Harry Gribbon, & Mae Bush star.
I recently picked up three very nice tv prints of my favorite RKO comedy star, Edgar Kennedy: PARLOR BEDROOM & WRATH (with Lucy Beaumont & Arthur Housman), GRIN & BEAR IT (with Fred Kelsey), and IN LOVE AT FORTY (Charlie Hall has a great bit where the angry Italian wife of his barber starts to give him a shave - not a good idea!). IN LOVE AT FORTY includes a terrific introspective line from Edgar: "I fall in love the same way I get angry: ALL AT ONCE!"