I Love to Laugh!

"I thought you said you were watching a silent movie!"  My husband likes to shout that to me in the TV room when I'm raucously enjoying a comedy from the 1920s.  While he is a fellow that likes to laugh, my sweetie isn't a huge fan of slapstick, and that is his prevailing image of silent comedy.  His preference is for the witty rejoinder, the sarcastic bon mot.  A witty title card will raise a chuckle, but my honey bunny's funny bone is located in his ear.  He wants to hear Groucho or William Powell or Jean Harlow or Bob Hope and their razor sharp delivery.  I'm with him in such matters and start to tingle all over when I know a Preston Sturges or Billy Wilder or Joe Mankiewicz movie is in my near future.  We have found it best to use Rowan Atkinson to define our comic sensibilities.  The hubby is a Blackadder fan.  I like both the sarcasm of Blackadder and the mime of Mr. Bean.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Rene Clair’s 1928 classic The Italian Straw Hat, a stage farce turned into a perfect silent film comedy.  Today I would like to spread the love to a few favourite shorts and features which highlight the remarkable depth of style of the silent film comedy.

BIG BUSINESS

Stan, Ollie, Fin

“The story of a man who turned the other cheek – And got punched in the nose.”

James W. Horne and Leo McCarey directed Laurel and Hardy in 1928s Big Business, the popular team’s last silent short.  As door to door Christmas tree salesmen our boys are a bust and yet they persevere.  It might have been prudent to change careers when perpetual foil James Finlayson answers the door, but these lads are made of stern stuff.  If you are going to bring Christmas trees to peoples front doorsteps there is a chance that a branch might get stuck in a door.  It might get stuck in a door more than once.  So might a coat.  The short-fused Finlayson might take exception.  A pair of righteous peddlers might reciprocate.  Things might get out of hand.

The location of Dunleer Drive in Los Angels in 1928 was a sweet neighborhood of cunning little bungalows, as well as the site of deliberate an delicious slapstick mayhem.  Finn methodically begins wrecking the boy’s car and the boys, in turn, destroy Finn’s house.  A curious crowd gathers and a cop takes notes from the sidelines as the destruction escalates to an emotional and cynical climax.  What’s so funny about destruction of private property?  It’s the attitude with which the deeds are committed, the sense of purpose and imagination behind the acts, plus the physicality.  I am convulsed with laughter at the sight of Finn wrestling the Christmas trees.  I am supposed to be convulsed with laughter.  Mission accomplished. 

   

NEIGHBORS

Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox

Written and directed by Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline 1920s Neighbors is a back alley Romeo and Juliet story that is a sublime showcase for leading man Keaton.  The Boy (Buster) and The Girl (Virginia Fox) are in love, but kept apart by their feuding folks.  Buster incorporates thrilling and funny stunts involving the fence that separates him from his girl, the clothesline and a telephone pole.  The neighborhood is filled with feisty folk and there’s always a cop around when you don’t need one.  The whole kit and caboodle end up in court where a judge convinces them to give up their shenanigans and let the kids marry.  (Note:  wedding gifts include an instruction book by Gentleman Jim Corbett!)  The wedding day brings its own problems including and especially wardrobe and jewelry malfunctions all leading to a daring acrobatic and romantic finish.  I first saw Neighbors at a theatrical presentation where the full house laughed and cheered.  It is the perfect introduction to the genius that is Buster Keaton.

THE MATINEE IDOL

Bessie Love, Johnnie Walker

Perhaps you’re looking for a little more tenderness in your romantic comedy than Buster usually provides.  You want Frank Capra’s 1928 feature The Matinee Idol, a charming comedy/drama/romance with an intriguing backstage setting. The film stars the wonderful Bessie Love as the daughter and leading lady in a family of troupers. A very likable Johnnie Walker co-stars as a successful actor taken with Miss Love. Consequently he takes up with the small town thespians, throwing himself into their sincere, yet corny theatrics.

When the troupe’s melodrama is brought to the big town and faces scorn from the critics and sophisticated audiences, romance is there to ease the sting of rejection. The movie is a delightful look at another time and place, filled with director Frank Capra's insights and affection for all types of people.

MY BEST GIRL

Buddy Rogers, Mary Pickford

Another gem in the romantic comedy line is Sam Taylor’s 1927 starring vehicle for Mary Pickford, My Best Girl.  The boss’ son (Charles “Buddy” Rogers) goes to work in the shipping department of his family’s department store and falls for poor, but honest and totally beguiling Maggie Johnson (our Mary).  That fact that Maggie’s beau isn’t who she thinks he is may be the least of the complications in the road to their happy ending.  There’s “Joe’s” high society mother and fiancée.  There’s Maggie’s problematic family including her theatre-mad flapper sister, overbearing Mom and indolent Pop.  My Best Girl is sweet without being cloying and funny in its ring-true characterizations.  The chemistry between Mary and Buddy is touching and joyful.

TWO ARABIAN KNIGHTS

William Boyd, Louis Wolheim

Lewis Milestone’s 1927 feature Two Arabian Knights is an Oscar winner in the unjustly long abandoned “Best Director, Comedy Picture” category.  A buddy movie and an adventure comedy starring handsome William Boyd and rough around the edges Louis Wolheim as, respectively, W. Dangerfield Phelps III and Sergeant Peter O’Gaffney.  These two opposites are WWI POWs who escape their captors and end up on board a ship with a lovely Arabian princess played by Mary Astor.  PS: Don’t blink as they leave the ship or you’ll miss Boris Karloff!  The beguiling princess is betrothed to the powerful and jealous Shevkit Ben Ali played by Ian Keith.  Many comedies through the years have been described as a “romp” and I don’t think many fit that description better than Two Arabian Knights.  The rollicking humour comes from the personalities and performances of our two Yankee daredevils as they battle each other and everyone else they encounter on their way to freedom and the pursuit of romance.  Boyd and Wolheim make quite a team and Two Arabian Knights is quite a picture.

Everything you look for in a talkie and more can be found in a silent comedy.  What more could you need after a good laugh?