From Muted Mayhem to Silent Screams

Way back on the first day of Summer, I began a "Slapstick Series" to explore the earliest days of that comedic genre within film. Along the way, I took a break to focus on THIS -- which still takes up much of my time and attention (please help!) -- and didn't quite make it all the way to my intended grand finale double-feature.

Speaking of which, I'd planned to end with the 1st Harold Lloyd appearance as his "Glasses" character, followed by the 1st movie written, directed, and starring Buster Keaton. Looks like now I've got a pretty strong opening bill lined up for next Summer instead.

But now it's October and my favorite time of year. The days shorten, the leaves are dying and falling to the ground where they'll decompose. Soon it'll be Halloween. And thus the perfect time to explore Horror movies in their infancy, which I plan to do in a "Silent Screams" series starting tomorrow.

As for the 2012 Summer Slapstick Series -- R.I.P., you were loved. Below are each of its entries, listed alongside the silent film spotlighted within:

1. The 1st Movie Comedy - The Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895)
2. Wrestling w/ Melies - The Fat and Lean Wrestling Match (1900)
3. The 1st True Slapstick - An Interesting Story (1904)
4. Pre-Iconic - A Story Well Spun (1906)
5. Exhibit E. Porter - Getting Evidence (1906)
6. Key Stepping Stone - The Policemen's Little Run (1907)
7. A Killer Joke - That Fatal Sneeze (1907)
8. The Original Queen of Comedy - Laughing Gas (1907)
9. Dark Comedy - The Thieving Hand (1908)
10. A Step Back - The Runaway Horse (1908)
11. Timeless - A Very Fine Lady (1908)
12. Outside The Tableau - Chimney Sweep (1906)
13. Key Foundation Cornerstone - The Bricklayers (1905)
14. Vaudevillians - Robetta and Doretto, No. 2 (1895)
15. The 1st Pie Face - Mr. Flip (1909)
16. Ladies, Please! - Those Awful Hats (1909)
17. Multilevel Comedy - The Irresistible Piano (1907)
18. Semi-Meta - A Fall from Five Floors (1906)
19. Don't Sleep on These - The Rolling Bed (1907)
20. A Vehicle for Comedy - The '?' Motorist (1906)
21. Passing the Torch - The Race for the Sausage (1907)
22. Laugh Olympics - An Obstacle Course (1906)
23. When Harry Met Zecca - Slippery Jim (1910)
24. Character Development - How Bumptious Papered the Parlour (1910)
25. Moving On - Alkali Ike's Auto (1911)
26. Comedic Timing - Onésime, Clockmaker (1912)
27. Before The Fame - Troublesome Secretaries (1911)
28. Laugh With Linder - Troubles of a Grasswidower (1912)
29. Keystone Mack [Sennett] Daddy - The Water Nymph (1912)
30. Keystone "Cops" - The Bangville Police (1913)
31. Villainy Defined - Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life (1913)
32. The 1st Fatty - Peeping Pete (1913)
33. Chaplin's First Film - Making a Living (1914)
34. The Tramp Appears - Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)
35. Creating The Tramp - Mabel's Strange Predicament (1914)
36. The Movie Dick - Pool Sharks (1915)
37. The Super Friends - A Film Johnnie (1914)
38. Two of a Kind - Fox Trot Finesse (1915)
39. Laurel before Hardy, Hardy before Laurel - The Servant Girl's Legacy (1914)

Hope you enjoy, and thank you!

September Slapstick: Laurel before Hardy, Hardy before Laurel

Laurel and Hardy were the first double act to gain worldwide fame through film. Together, they made over 100 movies -- 32 were silent shorts, 23 were feature-length and contained sound. However, each was already well-established before joining as a duo:

Stanley Arthur "Stan" Jefferson [Laurel] was the older of the two. A music-hall understudy to Charlie Chaplin (pre-Keystone), he appeared in over 50 films. Buster Keaton commented on Laurel's talent, "Chaplin wasn't the funniest, I wasn't the funniest, this man was the funniest." Below is an early Larry Semon vehicle, Huns and Hyphens, which features a pre-L&H Laurel.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0009214/

Oliver "Babe" Hardy, affectionately known as Ollie, began his movie career before Laurel, resulting in over 250 films before their team-up. He was from Georgia, my home (and current) state, but I won't hold that against him. Below is The Servant Girl's Legacy (dir. Arthur Hotaling), a short from 1914 featuring a 22-year-old Hardy.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0248420/

September Slapstick: The Super Friends | A Film Johnnie (1914)

On this final day of September, I'm posting a couple entries on silent comedy teams -- those two are coming later today.

Before that, I wanted to give a final shout-out to Mack Sennett and his repertory players, specifically Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Fatty Arbuckle, and Ford Sterling. They all make an appearance in A Film Johnnie, a meta-movie directed by George Nichols, in which Chaplin visits the Keystone Studios lot. The mayhem that follows is a prelude to the real-life relationship difficulties that soon existed between each of these stars.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0003961/

September Slapstick: Creating The Tramp | Mabel's Strange Predicament (1914)

The first time Chaplin donned his "Tramp" costume: Mabel's Strange Predicament, directed by and starring Mabel Normand. From a 1933 interview, Chaplin recalls The Tramp's inception:

"I was hurriedly told to put on a funny make-up. This time I went to the wardrobe and got a pair of baggy pants, a tight coat, a small derby hat and a large pair of shoes. I wanted the clothes to be a mass of contradictions, knowing pictorially the figure would be vividly outlined on the screen. To add a comic touch, I wore a small mustache which would not hide my expression. My appearance got an enthusiastic response from everyone, including Mr. Sennett. The clothes seemed to imbue me with the spirit of the character. He actually became a man with a soul - a point of view. I defined to Mr. Sennett the type of person he was. He wears an air of romantic hunger, forever seeking death, but his feet won't let him." 

Note that this is not the 1st film appearance of The Tramp, based upon release date -- Kid Auto Races at Venice was released 2 days earlier (on February 7th, 1914).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004284/

September Slapstick: The Tramp Appears | Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)

The first film appearance of Charlie Chaplin's famous character, The Tramp.

Note that this was not the first time Chaplin donned the costume - that occurred for the filming of Mabel's Strange Predicament. However, Kid Auto Races at Venice (directed by Henry Lehrman) was released on February 7th, 1914, two days before Mabel's Strange Predicament.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004189/

September Slapstick: Chaplin's First Film | Making a Living (1914)

An entire blog series can be created just for the shorts of Charles "Charlie" Chaplin, and I plan to do this for the next month starting with the letter 'C'...maybe I should choose a different time.

Regardless, Chaplin made his film debut in the appropriately titled, Making a Living, playing a swindler and not his lovable tramp character. It was directed by Henry Lehrman and is the 6th of 12 movies featuring Mack Sennett's Keystone Cops.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004288/

September Slapstick: The 1st Fatty | Peeping Pete (1913)

Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle. One of the most influential, controversial, and tragic stars from early cinema. He was a mentor to Charlie Chaplin, discovered Buster Keaton and Bob Hope, signed one of the first million-dollar contracts, was accused (and acquitted) in the rape and accidental killing of Virginia Rappe, had his films banned during the height of his career, and then died of a heart attack at the age of 46.

Below we have the oldest surviving film appearance of Fatty Arbuckle: Peeping Pete, starring Mack Sennett (who also directed) as the movie's titular character. It was released as a split reel along with A Bandit, which also features Arbuckle.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0003265/

September Slapstick: Laugh With Linder | Troubles of a Grasswidower (1912)

The Golden Age of Slapstick was ushered in by Gabriel-Maximilien Leuvielle, better known by his stage name and most popular character: Max [Linder]. Widely considered the first international movie star, Linder appeared in over 500 films (100+ as the top-hatted, dandy), and by 1912 was earning a salary of one million francs. Charlie Chaplin called Max "his Professor", and himself "Linder's disciple".

In Troubles of a Grasswidower, which was also directed by Linder, the influence upon Chaplin (and Sennett, Arbuckle, etc.) is easy to see:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277883/

Slapstick Summer Series: Character Development | How Bumptious Papered the Parlor (1910)

Before Roscoe was 'Fatty', before Chaplin was 'The Tramp', and before Harold Lloyd was 'Lonesome Luke' (or 'The Boy'), John Cumpson was 'Bumptious', a slapstick character he portrayed in 13 different movies. How Bumptious Papered the Parlor, directed by Ashley Miller, is the oldest surviving of the thirteen. Though lacking the comedic timing of the legends, and despite a career cut short by pneumonia & diabetes, Cumpson earns a spot in film history for his role in ushering in the recurring lead character.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477316/

Slapstick Summer Series! - A Story Well Spun (1906), Pre-Iconic

A lesser-known work from the world's first female filmmaker, but one which is expertly filmed and a herald of things to come. From the start we see a Tramp-ish character as the lead, immediately pulling our mind toward Chaplin. We are then treated to an excellent chase-less chase sequence almost a decade before The Keystone Cops popularized chase films as a genre. The "stunts", primarily created with the stop-edit replacement tricks standard for the time, are of the type that Buster Keaton would later perform without the proverbial safety-net.

Bonus: Try to spot the man pushing the barrel on the railroad tracks at the 0:50 mark. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1649428/

Slapstick Summer Series! - The Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895), 1st Movie Comedy

Though not slapstick, strictly-speaking, Lumière's The Sprinkler Sprinkled (aka L'Arroseur Arrosé and The Waterer Watered) earns the starting spot in this summer series for three main reasons:

1. It's the 1st comedy film.
2. What's more Summer-y than sprinkling sprinklers?
3. The film's alliterative English name compliments the blog title.

Thus begins the Summer of Slapstick, which will contain the early shorts of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Mabel Normand, Fatty Arbuckle, Max Linder, Ford Sterling and the Keystone Cops, and other surprises.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000014/

Happy Birthday, Sir Charles "Charlie" Chaplin!

This video gives me chills. Every...single...time: