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!