Errol Flynn does the "Mirror Routine"

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Steve Massa
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Re: Errol Flynn does the "Mirror Routine"

Postby Steve Massa » Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:55 pm

Ed - the clip of Harold Lloyd doing the mirror routine used in THE THIRD GENIUS is from THE MARATHON ('19), which is at Eastman House.

About a year ago I was watching a bunch of Alice Guy Blanche's Solax films and came across the earliest use of the routine that I've seen - 1912's HIS DOUBLE, where Darwin Karr and his rival for the girl are dressed alike and do about a minute and a half version (which takes up a good chunk since it's a one-reeler).

Richard Finegan

"Mirror Routine" in Three Stooges short

Postby Richard Finegan » Tue Dec 27, 2011 10:56 pm

Curly Howard and Duke York (as "Lupe The Wolf Man") do the mirror routine in the 1944 Three Stooges short IDLE ROOMERS.

Robert Arkus
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Re: Errol Flynn does the "Mirror Routine"

Postby Robert Arkus » Tue Dec 27, 2011 11:37 pm

... Let's not forget Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd's turn in "Hare Tonic" (1945).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiR2dWFK3rQ&feature=related

(It's approximately six minutes and twenty seconds in ...).

Gary Johnson
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Re: Errol Flynn does the "Mirror Routine"

Postby Gary Johnson » Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:55 am

This bit had to had originated on stage. It just screams 'vaudeville routine.'
And yet I've never read of any stage comic performing this....

Richard M Roberts
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Re: Errol Flynn does the "Mirror Routine"

Postby Richard M Roberts » Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:09 am

Gary Johnson wrote:This bit had to had originated on stage. It just screams 'vaudeville routine.'
And yet I've never read of any stage comic performing this....



Good God, it goes back to Commedia Del Arte' ! I remember once sitting among a group of historians trying to figure out just how far back one could trace that routine and figured out that you could probably find two neanderthals who had done it. In fact, after many drinks, we had postulated that one neanderthal comedian had discovered his reflection in a pool of water, and started finding straightmen who could hold their breaths long enough to do the routine with him, but unfortunately his adlibbing lead to him having to replace too many drowned straightmen. A few more drinks and we had postulated that a straightman probably invented glass......


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Ed Watz
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Re: Errol Flynn does the "Mirror Routine"

Postby Ed Watz » Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:38 am

Michael J Hayde wrote:It's been just the opposite in my experience. I've seen DUCK SOUP several times in packed theatres, from the old Beverly in West Hollywood to the AFI's Silver in Maryland. In every case, audiences roared so loud and so long after the first few seconds, that the lack of music and sound was absolutely unnoticable. When Groucho does his 360 while Harpo just stands there, both ending with a flourish, laughter was always accompanied by prolonged applause.

Michael


Michael, I wish I'd seen DUCK SOUP with YOUR audience. Goes to show you how subjective the comedy experience can be, even among a crowd of enthusiasts.

Reminds me of a story: I'd never seen CITY LIGHTS until the official Chaplin reissue in the early 70's. The Lincoln Art Cinema in Manhattan was our "flagship" theater for this Chaplin Series re-launch. Each film was required to play there exclusively for 12 weeks, "art house" style, before going into general release.

Over those three months I managed to catch CITY LIGHTS half a dozen times, always with a good-sized, appreciative house. At the beginning of the "morning after" sequence, when groggy Harry Myers slowly awakes, sober, to discover Charlie curled up in bed next to him, there was an audience sentiment of "uh-ohs" and some scattered laughs. The reaction to this scene (at the Lincoln Art) was never much more than that.

Months later when CITY LIGHTS played the neighborhood houses I caught it again locally. On this occasion, as Harry Myers slowly looks at the sleeping Charlie, this bit got one of the biggest, longest laughs I'd ever heard...it was one of those Epiphany Moments in my childhood's comedy education (another occurred around the same time, hearing a dirty laugh reaction from a Hippie audience, when Al St. John licked his chops towards the audience after his friendly enounter with battle-axe ugly Agnese Neilsen, in FATTY AT CONEY ISLAND). Ah, childhood memories!
"Of course he smiled -- just like you and me." -- Harold Goodwin, on Buster Keaton (1976)

Ed Watz
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Re: Errol Flynn does the "Mirror Routine"

Postby Ed Watz » Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:47 am

Steve Massa wrote:Ed - the clip of Harold Lloyd doing the mirror routine used in THE THIRD GENIUS is from THE MARATHON ('19), which is at Eastman House.

About a year ago I was watching a bunch of Alice Guy Blanche's Solax films and came across the earliest use of the routine that I've seen - 1912's HIS DOUBLE, where Darwin Karr and his rival for the girl are dressed alike and do about a minute and a half version (which takes up a good chunk since it's a one-reeler).


Steve, thanks very much for this information. It would be fascinating (even perhaps fun) to view every incarnation of the Mirror Routine known to exist on film, chronologically and back-to-back...at least until we get to the likes of Patty Duke!
"Of course he smiled -- just like you and me." -- Harold Goodwin, on Buster Keaton (1976)

Ed Watz
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Re: Errol Flynn does the "Mirror Routine"

Postby Ed Watz » Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:54 am

Richard M Roberts wrote:
Gary Johnson wrote:This bit had to had originated on stage. It just screams 'vaudeville routine.'
And yet I've never read of any stage comic performing this....



Good God, it goes back to Commedia Del Arte' ! I remember once sitting among a group of historians trying to figure out just how far back one could trace that routine and figured out that you could probably find two neanderthals who had done it. In fact, after many drinks, we had postulated that one neanderthal comedian had discovered his reflection in a pool of water, and started finding straightmen who could hold their breaths long enough to do the routine with him, but unfortunately his adlibbing lead to him having to replace too many drowned straightmen. A few more drinks and we had postulated that a straightman probably invented glass......


RICHARD M ROBERTS


Richard, what a great premise that could've been for an episode of IT'S ABOUT TIME -- Joe E. Ross: "Oh! Oh! Me need straight man who can hold breath or routine no good!"
"Of course he smiled -- just like you and me." -- Harold Goodwin, on Buster Keaton (1976)

Ed Watz
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Re: "Mirror Routine" in Three Stooges short

Postby Ed Watz » Wed Dec 28, 2011 11:14 am

Richard Finegan wrote:Curly Howard and Duke York (as "Lupe The Wolf Man") do the mirror routine in the 1944 Three Stooges short IDLE ROOMERS.


Hello Richard, and thanks for reminding me - Curly's initial reaction to his "reflection" is priceless. It's one of his last strong performances before the illness that eventually debilitated him.

Also Vernon Dent has a classic bit when wife Christine McIntyre tells him they can't keep the Wolf Man in their hotel room --

Vernon: "There's nothing to be afraid of, he's absolutely harmless, except when he hears music. (Cheerfully) Then he goes insane."
"Of course he smiled -- just like you and me." -- Harold Goodwin, on Buster Keaton (1976)

Gary Johnson
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Re: Errol Flynn does the "Mirror Routine"

Postby Gary Johnson » Wed Dec 28, 2011 5:54 pm

Richard M Roberts wrote:
Gary Johnson wrote:This bit had to had originated on stage. It just screams 'vaudeville routine.'
And yet I've never read of any stage comic performing this....


Good God, it goes back to Commedia Del Arte' !
RICHARD M ROBERTS


Yes...but did any of them ever play the Orpheum with it??


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