Welcome to THE LOST LAUGH, a website and blog dedicated to the classic clowns of (roughly) the 1910s -1950s.
My name is Matthew Ross, and I’ve had a passion for silent and early sound comedy since I first saw Laurel and Hardy on TV when I was four years old. From there my interest spread to the other greats like Chaplin, Keaton and the Marx Brothers, and kept on growing. As well as the classics, I’m fascinated by the fringes of the industry. Neglected and forgotten performers, who brushed greatness but whose names have not endured. Many of these now seem dated; some of them do not transcend cultural barriers. Some were of dubious value in the first place! But amongst them were some perfect fools, magical acrobats, superb pantomimists, skilled filmmakers and witty wordsmiths who still can provide so much entertainment. Charley Chase, Lupino Lane, Lloyd Hamilton, Harry Langdon, Will Hay, George Formby, Mabel Normand, Dan Leno, Clark and McCullough, Alice Howell, Jack Hulbert, Roscoe Arbuckle, Anita Garvin, Charley Bowers, Max Linder, Wanda Wiley, Poodles Hanneford, Gale Henry, Walter Forde…. the list goes on. THE LOST LAUGH is my tribute to those performers.
On this site, you’ll find a selection of articles, research, rare photos and film clips from these great and forgotten stars of silent comedy, sound shorts, music hall, radio, and so on. There are three basic elements to the site.
This blog, which I update semi-regularly with articles, film clips, photos and the like.
A more in-depth reference guide to classic comedy performers, people like those listed above. These are permanent web pages accessed through the menus at the top of the page. I’m slowly adding to these and hope to have a comprehensive guide to the comedians of this era one day.
THE LOST LAUGH MAGAZINE (formerly MOVIE NIGHT) is a free ezine started in 2011 that goes into even greater detail and contains exclusive material not reproduced on the site. It’s a labour of love, produced roughly once or twice a year (depending on what other projects I have going on) and features exclusive articles and photos, as well as contributions from guest writers. You can access back issues here – if you’d like to subscribe and have new issues sent direct to your email inbox, you can find more info on how to do that inside the magazines.
Thanks for reading. I hope you find some new favourite films and performers while you’re here!
Need some weekend reading? Ahead of Kennington Bioscope’s Silent Laughter Weekend at London’s Cinema Museum next Saturday/Sunday, here are the programme notes: twenty pages of essays and articles by Glenn Mitchell, Michelle Facey and yours truly.
If you like the look of the programme, it’s not too late to pick up a ticket! Here’s the link: Silent Laughter Weekend 2026 | Get Tickets | Ticketlab Day, part-day and full weekend tickets available. Hope to see you there!
Where does the time go? It’s almost time for Kennington Bioscope’s Silent Laughter Weekend – the annual celebration of Silent Comedy, classic and rare at London’s Cinema Museum. It takes place over two jam-packed days on 14th -15th November.
As well as icons like Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon and Harold Lloyd, our programme takes a deep dive into the world of silent comedy. As always, we’ll be spotlighting unjustly forgotten performers like John Bunny, Louise Fazenda, Charley Chase, Lloyd Hamilton and Anita Garvin. There are also premieres of newly restored features starring Max Linder and Marie Prevost, plus a whole host of other rarities and showings on real celluloid.
This year we’re also showcasing several films celebrating their centenary; as you’ll see, 1926 was a GREAT year for film comedy. All programmes feature live music from the UK’s top accompanists, and will have engaging introductions from silent film authors, enthusiasts, collectors and historians. So, without further ado, here’s the full programme – the link to tickets is at the bottom of the page.
SATURDAY14TH NOVEMBER
10.00 Madame Behave (1925)
Following the great success of cross-dressing comedy Charley’s Aunt (shown last year at KB) in 1925, producer Al Christie followed up with a film starring the celebrated female impersonator Julian Eltinge. This showing is a rare chance to see Eltinge strut his stuff, alongside a great comedy cast. This screening will include newly scanned 35mm elements from the Library of Congress, enabling us to present a partial restoration of the film. Piano accompaniment by John Sweeney.
11.30 Focus On… Joker
Continuing our series of spotlights on some of the forgotten comedy studios, this time we’re very pleased to present an introduction to the world of Joker Comedies. Presented by Thomas Reeder, author of a new book about the studio, the programme will showcase rare comedy treats featuring Louise Fazenda, Bobby Vernon, Gale Henry, Billy Franey, Milburn Morante, Lillian Peacock, Max Asher, Harry McCoy, Dot Farley and Lon Chaney. Piano accompaniment by Ashley Valentine.
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Silent Comedy Teams
Laurel & Hardy might be the best-loved silent comedy team, but they weren’t the first, and far from the only one. Silent comedy enthusiast Matthew Ross presents a deep dive into the history of silent double (and triple!) acts. Expect clips and classic shorts featuring John Bunny & Flora Finch, Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton, ‘A Ton of Fun’, Anita Garvin & Marion Byron (pictured), and more. And of course, we have to feature Mr Laurel & Mr Hardy! Wrong Again (1929) is one of their most off-beat comedies, in which – through a series of misunderstandings – they find themselves coaxing a horse on top of a grand piano! Piano accompaniment by Meg Morley.
15.40 Hot Water (1924) and Saturday Afternoon (1926)
Two short – but perfectly formed – mini feature films. Harry Langdon’s Saturday Afternoon is a sweet-natured domestic comedy that sees innocent Harry led astray by his friend Vernon Dent. Langdon’s pantomimic gifts are given full reign in this three reel comedy. Hot Water is one of Harold Lloyd’s less well-remembered films, but contains some brilliant set pieces, including one of his funniest: Harold’s attempts to bring a live turkey home on a tramcar! Introduced by Matthew Ross. Piano accompaniment by Cyrus Gabrysch.
17.40 1926: It Was a Very Good Year
It’s the centenary of a golden year for silent comedy. Join silent comedy experts Glenn Mitchell and Dave Glass as they present a selection of the very best short comedies from 1926. Expect classics starring Lloyd Hamilton, Billy Bevan, Kennington Bioscope favourite Charley Chase, and Lupino Lane. Piano accompaniment by Ashley Valentine.
19.00 Dinner
20.00 King of the Circus (1924)
The great Max Linder laid the template for the great screen comedians, and Charlie Chaplin cited him as a major influence. He died tragically young at the age of 41 in 1925, but made a handful of feature films before he left us.
King of the Circus, his last film, has long been unavailable but has now been lovingly restored; we’re delighted and very proud to host its UK premiere as part of Silent Laughter Weekend.
Introduced (digitally) by Serge Bromberg, who reconstructed and restored the film. Piano accompaniment by Meg Morley.
SUNDAY
10.00 The 28MM Comedy Show
28mm was an early attempt to create a show-at-home film gauge for amateurs. Later made obsolete by 9.5 and 16mm films, it existed long enough to preserve some otherwise lost comedies. At this very special showing, film collector Christopher Bird will present some of these rare comedies on celluloid, using a 28mm projector. Make sure you’re here early on Sunday to catch this unique event, a feast of gloriously archaic analogue technology and extremely rare comedy films on real film! Piano accompaniment by John Sweeney.
11.30 The Caveman (1926)
Marie Prevost was one of the great silent comediennes, excelling at portraying sexy, sassy, strong women. In The Caveman, she’s rich and bored of the oh-so polite gentlemen she’s been dating. So, as a project, she decides to transform tough coalman Matt Moore into a man-about-town. This silent rom-com, a gender-reversed precursor to My Fair Lady, is a delight, featuring wonderful performances from Prevost and Moore. We’re proud to be showing the UK premiere of this new restoration, introduced by Michelle Facey. Piano accompaniment by Meg Morley.
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Those TV Shows…
In the 1950s and 60s, renewed interest in silent comedies saw several TV shows devoted to showcasing them: Golden Silents, Comedy Capers, Mad Movies… How many do you remember? For many of us, these programmes were our first introduction to the world of silent laughter. Dave Glass gets nostalgic as he digs into the stories behind these programmes. Featuring lots of clips (and an occasional, annoyingly catchy theme tune…)
16.00 Atta Boy (1926)
Another 1926 gem from our favourite Italian comic, little Monty Banks. Made on the heels of his classic Play Safe (1927), Atta Boy (left) sees Monty on fine form as a would-be reporter investigating a kidnapping. Featuring lots of great gags, and one of Banks’ patented stunt sequences – hanging from a ladder atop a speeding car – as a climax. Big-screen premiere of a new restoration. Piano accompaniment by Ashley Valentine.
17.30 Rarities & Rediscoveries
Now a regular fixture in the Silent Laughter programme, once more we’ve dug through the film collections and archives to present a programme of long-lost and forgotten funnies. What’s on the menu? Well, we’re still finalising the details, but expect the premiere of a hilarious, newly restored Snub Pollard comedy for starters, plus films starring Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle, Larry Semon and lots more rarities that you won’t see anywhere else! Piano accompaniment by Cyrus Gabrysch.
19.00 Dinner
20.00 The General – Special Centenary Showing
We couldn’t celebrate the great comedies of 1926 without including a film often considered the best silent comedy of all: Buster Keaton’s The General. This classic railroad chase comedy, set during the American Civil War, is beautifully filmed, directed and acted, and chock full of great stunts and gags. The perfect culmination to a weekend of Silent Laughter. If you’ve never seen The General on the big screen before, then there’s no better place than in the evocative surroundings of the Cinema Museum. If you have, well, you won’t want to miss the extra rare Keaton goodies that we’ll be showing to make this an extra special screening… Presented by David MacLeod, of The Blinking Buzzards, the UK Buster Keaton Appreciation Society. Piano accompaniment by Costas Fotopoulos.
Behind-the-scenes footage of the great silent comedians at work is – for the most part – a rare thing indeed. While Chaplin’s Archive preserved many of his outtakes (including those in the wonderful Unknown Chaplin series), footage of most of the other silent clowns at work is sparse indeed.
That makes a new upload of some Harry Langdon outtakes, on Jeff Joseph’s SabuCat Productions YouTube channel, especially precious. They’re from a sound film – 1933’s HALLELUJAH, I’M A BUM, which starred Al Jolson – but no less fascinating for that. Peeserved in a ten minute sequence are several runs through of a scene with Langdon, Jolson, Tammany Young and Edgar Connor. Although the clip is mute, so Harry’s unscripted comments aren’t heard, it’s still fascinating to watch his concentration and honing of his performance as he deploys slight variations of his mannerisms each time (especially in his reactions to the violinist). It’s also a reminder of how much work went into the films we know and love.
There’s also a costume test reel, including Harry alongside Jolson, Connor and Frank Morgan. One notable thing is that Harry’s character Egghead was originally given a five o’clock shadow, a decision that was wisely altered to enhance his character’s innocence.
All in all, a fascinating glimpse, and a rare chance to be a fly on a wall. Thanks, SabuCat, for making these available online!
Want some more classic comedy reading? Well, in case you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a new – and wonderful – issue of Comique magazine out now, for free download. The magazine is a collaborative effort by some of the heavy hitters in the film comedy community: researchers, authors and experts like Paul Gierucki, David B Pearson, Richard M Roberts, Edward Watz, Lea Stans and more.
Well, actually, the word ‘magazine’ doesn’t really do this justice. At almost 250 pages, it’s longer than many books. Richard M. Roberts’ superb – and definitive – article on Lloyd Hamilton comes in at almost 100 pages, for instance. And then there’s an extra twenty pages of Hamilton’s filmography!
Hamilton is the perfect cover star for the issue – he’s a totem for the kind of superb, but neglected, comedians that Comique (like The Lost Laugh) is aiming to celebrate, rehabilitate and put into the limelight once more. Among the other wonderful comedy second (and third) bananas getting their dues here are Polly Moran, Vernon Dent and Louise Fazenda. It’s also great that there are plenty of female performers, so often neglected next to male comedians, being celebrated here. Miss Fazenda, especially, is a great talent who deserves the quality article that Lea Stans has contributed here.
The remit isn’t just silent comedy, but extends into the sound era with an article on Ted Healy by Robert Fender. There’s even a discourse on Abbott & Costello’s TV series by Edward Watz.
I also really enjoyed the articles putting a bit of a personal spin on the film history, and making a tangible connection between the authors and the films they are writing about. Paul Gierucki’s article on Minta Durfee Arbuckle, for instance, and Edward Watz’s memories of working with the notorious Raymond Rohauer.
As well as the text, the whole magazine is chock full of wonderful, high quality still photos, posters and other reproduced artefacts. It’s also designed beautifully. So much work has clearly gone into the publication that it’s astounding – and very generous – that it is being given away for free. So, do download it and enjoy it, and then – as always – tell your friends about it, share it on whatever media/forum you use, and make sure that the word gets out.
It’s the 2025 Silent Laughter event this Sunday at The Cinema Museum! A full day of silent comedies on the big screen, with live musical accompaniment and introductions from film historians. Among the line-up are W.C.Fields, Louise Brooks, Colleen Moore, Mabel Normand, Wanda Wiley, Fred Evans (‘Pimple’), Snub Pollard, a long-lost silent P.G. Wodehouse adaptation, and Laurel & Hardy as you’ve never seen them before…
The programme notes are now available for download – eleven pages of essays and commentary by Glenn Mitchell, Michelle Facey, Bob Geoghegan and yours truly. You can read them below, or download the pdf.
Snub Pollard’s bowler and moustache might not be as iconic as Chaplin’s or Oliver Hardy’s, but he’s still a sort of silent comedy totem. That worried little face with the upside-down Kaiser Wilhelm ‘tache is shorthand for a whole genre of delightfully deranged, gag-happy comedies from the early 20s. IT’S A GIFT is an acknowledged classic of surreal gadget comedies, but it’s far from the only great Snub film. He was a busy man, turning out dozens of terrific one and two-reelers for Hal Roach in the early 1920s. Gag-for-gag, these are among the funniest silent comedy shorts, but there’s never been a proper, high-quality collection of his films. Until Now.
Dave Glass’s latest Kickstarter will hopefully change that. It aims to shine a light on our boy Snub, in a packed BluRay collection of some of his best – and rarest – films. A mammoth TWENTY SIX of them, in fact! As well as private collections, many of these come from archivists such as Serge Bromberg, EYE, and The Library of Congress, and they’ll all be restored and scored by some of the finest silent film accompanists around. This is simply an unmissable Kickstarter, and will hopefully give Snub the due he deserves. To take a peek at the riches that will be featured, take a look at Dave’s great little promo video:
As always, when one tugs at a strand in the tangled silent comedy web, one finds it is attached to many others: Charley Chase directed several of these films, James Finlayson shows up in a few, and there’s even a couple of long-unseen Harold Lloyd films included, with Snub as his sidekick. So, this isn’t just for diehard Snub fans, by any means. If you enjoy gagged up silent comedy on any level, you’ll find something to enjoy here. Make sure you don’t miss out: the Kickstarter runs until September 15th. here’s the link. Go go go! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/reelcomedy/snub-pollard-silent-comedian/creator
By the way, if you want more info about Snub, there’s a detailed article about him in issue 13 of THE LOST LAUGH magazine. You can download that for free here: The Lost Laugh magazine.
Next Saturday, the Kennington Bioscope’s event The Sound of Laughter takes place at London’s Cinema Museum.
It’s an all day celebration of 1930s comedy, everything from Laurel & Hardy, the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields to Clark & McCullough, Charley Chase, Thelma Todd, Harry Sweet, Robert Benchley, Harry Langdon and more! There’s also a spotlight on sound films of the silent comedians, with a complete screening of Buster Keaton’s wonderful French film LE ROI DES CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES, and the classic British farce comedy ROOKERY NOOK – shown on 35mm.
The programme notes are now available for download at the bottom of this post – 12 pages of info written by Glenn Mitchell, Mark Newell and yours truly. Some bonus reading if you’ve finished reading issue 15 of The Lost Laugh by now!
For those tempted to join us, there are still some tickets available, a steal at £21 for an all day pass / Afternoon and evening pass £16 / Evening pass £8. You can also book dinner (£12) at the Cafe Jamyang, next door to the Museum. Tickets and dinner bookable here.
Well, it’s been a while, but the new issue is done.
At 60 pages, this is the longest one yet, and I’m proud to feature some fantastic guest contributors this time. Syd Chaplin’s biographer Lisa Stein Haven has provided some great insights into our cover star, as well as his more famous little brother… There are also some details on the newly restored Syd feature, Oh! What a Nurse!.
I’m absolutely thrilled to be able to publish an exclusive excerpt from Steve Massa’s new book about Harold Lloyd’s Lonesome Luke films, and the early years of the Hal Roach studios – available soon from Split-Reel. There’s also a very informative Q & A with Steve about the new book.
There are also articles about Jerry Drew, Marion Byron, Monty Banks and a piece about gagman extraordinaire Charles Rogers, by Holly Foskett and Matthew Lydick from A Lot of Fun Writers. Plus, a transcript of an interview with Al St John, film and BluRay reviews and lots more.
I really hope you enjoy this issue. I hope it won’t take as long for #16 to come along! If you’d like to contribute an article, plug a project you’re working on, or take part in a Q & A for the next issue, please do get in touch – either in the comments section here, or by emailing movienightmag [AT] gmail.com
And finally… The magazine is totally free. However if, you do enjoy reading the issues and would like to make a donation to support site running costs, software etc then these would be gratefully received! If you would like to donate, you can buy me a coffee on Ko-Fi. Thanks!
After returning to Britain in 1930, Lupino Lane managed the starring career in feature films that eluded him in Hollywood. One of his final Hollywood films, FIRE PROOF, had shown that he could successfully make a slapstick film in his old style with sound. In Britain, he achieved this again with 1931’s NO LADY, a great little film that features some of his best pantomime routines, revisited. But by the mid-1930s, this sort of comedy was going out of fashion, and light musical comedies were in. As a comedy all-rounder, this was a medium that Lane also enjoyed, and he had alternated much of his film career with appearances in stage plays.
In the mid 30s, British film exhibitors were beholden to exhibiting a quota of home-grown films, in an attempt by the industry to limit the dominance of Hollywood. This set up a boom of production, with many small companies deciding to have a go: quantity did not mean quality of course, and many of these films gained the derogatory term “quota quickies”. Still, with a guaranteed market for their product, it was a good time for filmmakers to launch a new venture, and Lane decided to get in on the game. He set up his own production company, ‘St George’s Pictures’, in 1935, with the intention of making independent comedy features. Most of these are lost, but THE DEPUTY DRUMMER survives, and shows him moving more in the light comedy direction. In it, he plays struggling composer Adolphus Miggs, who joins a band as drummer to attend a party at a stately home, but is mistaken for Lord Miggs. Subsequently, he’s mixed up witha jewel theft, but manages to both catch the thieves, and find a patron for his rhapsody. It’s easy to imagine this concotion as a stage play, and it’s similar to the vehicles that Lane’s cousin Stanley Lupino was making: a light, farcical comedy with some dialogue routines, songs, romance, and the odd bit of visual comedy.
The low budget, “quota quickie” status of THE DEPUTY DRUMMER shows through; it has a slightly slapdash feel to it, with a few half-burning dialogue routines. There’s much less visual comedy than usual for Lane, and a sequence of him let loose on a rare collection of china vases (I bet you can’t guess what’s going to happen…) is pretty predictable. Nevertheless, a running gag of a missing necklace seeming to follow him around comes off much better, and as with every Lane film, there’s at least one spectacular pratfall. Here, he misses the top step of a flight, and somersaults right down to the bottom. It’s over in a few seconds, but is a reminder of the absolute physical mastery of this unique comedian.
Elsewhere, the musical comedy format permits some charming musical numbers, especially a wonderfully understated dance number with Brutus the dog, ‘Dear Old Pal’. Oh, and look out for the always reliable Wallace Lupino and Syd Crossley as two villains, plus George Formby’s regular foil Hal Gordon.
So, overall, a mixed bag, but an interesting one. If you see the film for what it is, a 30s British musical comedy with low ambitions but some great assets, then it’s a pleasant way to spend an hour or so. Lane would make one more film with St George’s Pictures, TRUST THE NAVY – now lost – before the venture fizzled, but still had one more great film in him: 1939’s THE LAMBETH WALK. But that’s another story. Here’s THE DEPUTY DRUMMER…
For over twenty years, Roscoe Arbuckle made enormous contributions to screen comedy, in front of and behind the camera. This is a man who not only mentored Buster Keaton, but also gave valuable help to both Charlie and Syd Chaplin in their early careers, as well as many other comedians like Charley Chase and Al St John. Later, he was instrumental in directing films for St John, Lloyd Hamilton, Lupino Lane and many others. As a performer, he inspired a wave of ‘jolly fat man’ performers: Babe Hardy, Hughie Mack, Walter Hiers, ‘The Ton of Fun’.
Yet for all that, Arbuckle often seems slightly taken for granted. His image is so sewn up with Keystone slapstick that his broader achievements in gentle situation comedy, farce and feature length comedies and as a director, are overlooked.
It’s hard to believe that it’s now twenty years since the definitive DVD set, ‘ The Forgotten Films of Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle’. This was the first set to really illuminate Roscoe’s wider achievements, and set a high bar. In the years since then, crowdfunding projects, access to Archives and digital technology have advanced, and the time is ripe to showcase some of the previously unseen and newly restored Arbuckle gems out there.
Among the highlights culled from Archives and private collections around the world are Arbuckle’s first Keystone THE GANGSTERS, THE SEA NYMPHS with Mabel Normand, rarely seen feature CRAZY TO MARRY, the Al St John shorts DYNAMITE DOGGIE and NEVER AGAIN and loads more! Overall, it’s a terrific sampler of silent comedy gold from one of tits finest talents. The Kickstarter campaign runs til Feb 14th and provides your opportunity to help bring these films to new audiences.
Crazy to Marry
Behind the Kickstarter campaign are silent comedy expert and author of ‘Rediscovering Roscoe’, Steve Massa, and producer Crystal Kui, with the new project being distributed through Ben Model’s Undercrank Productions.
Steve and Crystal very kindly offered to talk us through the new project, and some of the highlights it features. Read on for more…
This new Kickstarter release features a wealth of restored and reconstructed films, sourced from a range of archives and private collections. What are some of the logistical challenges in pulling all these disparate sources together?
Crystal Kui: In this Arbuckle release will be 11 shorts plus a feature sourced from seven different archives and two private collectors. Logistically, it will be quite a challenge to keep track of the shipping, scanning and restoration on all these films. We’re very fortunate that all of the participating archives were keen to provide access to their prints and are supportive of our efforts to share these treasures with the public. Thanks to Steve’s enthusiasm and deep knowledge of the films, we have been able to work with the archives on our side. After we draw up contracts with the participating archives, the next step is to coordinate the shipping or scanning of the film prints. A few archives have facilities on site to scan and restore the films, while for others we are able to ship the prints either to the Library of Congress for scanning on the east coast or to USC on the west coast. We have a team of digital restorers and color graders who are archive conscious and work diligently to bring the end result as close as possible to the original viewing experience. Not all films are complete, but we work with the best surviving or only surviving copies. My favorite aspect of working on this project is doing the research to reconstruct the missing parts or titles, finding out whether there was tinting and how it was used, and comparing foreign versions or reissues to the original domestic releases.
Were there any particular technical challenges involved in working with such rare and precious film elements?
CK: Several films in our release are sourced from foreign release prints including Crazy to Marry (1921) with Russian titles, The Sea Nymphs (1914) with Danish titles, and Fatty and the Broadway Stars with Norwegian titles. Instead of simply translating the titles into English, we tried to source scripts and censorship records in an attempt to reconstruct the titles as they were written originally in English. This requires a lot of close scrutiny and comparison. In studying the scripts, we also learned that Crazy to Marry had three tinting colors: yellow, blue and amber, which are detailed by reel, and will be recreated digitally by our graders Chris Crouse and Graham Brown, using original tinting samples from the early 1920s. Our regular collaborator, Jesse Pierce, an expert at recreating the intertitles, will design titles that faithfully match the original style of a Paramount feature, Keystone Comedy or Triangle release, for example.
Is therea particular restoration effort on this set that you’re most proud of?
CK: Perhaps ask me this in a year; the real in-depth restoration work is only beginning now that the Kickstarter has met its initial goals. We have a lot of work ahead of us!
Steve, this set comes on the heels of your book, ‘Rediscovering Roscoe’. Championing Arbuckle is clearly a passion project for you. What is it about him and his comedy style that speaks to you?
Steve Massa: I grew up hooked on silent comedy, and although I got a steady diet of Chaplin, Keaton, and Laurel & Hardy there was almost no Arbuckle to be seen. This was probably due to left over stigma from the scandal. My first real look at Roscoe was thanks to film historian William K. Everson. In a 1983 all-Arbuckle evening at New York’s Collective for Living Cinema, Professor Everson showed The Waiter’s Ball (1916), his feature Leap Year (made in 1921), and the comeback sound short Buzzin’ Around (1933). Seeing the comedian from his first full flowering to his last hurrah was an eye opening experience and inspired me to try and get as much of his work seen as possible. Since then I’ve taken every opportunity I could to present his films – at places like The Museum of Modern Art and Library of Congress, on DVD, and in print.
The fact that Arbuckle made feature films is often overlooked. ‘Crazy to Marry’ shows him mixing polite comedy plots with slapstick. Where do you think his comedy style might have headed in the 20s, if fate had not intervened?
SM: Mabel Normand and Roscoe were the first stars of slapstick shorts to move into feature films. Their type of comedy shorts, while loved by audiences, didn’t get much respect in the film industry itself, where they were often treated like poor step-children. To be taken seriously they had to appear in more serious fare and be “legitimized” as feature stars. Roscoe’s first feature was the dramatic western The Round Up (1920). The films that immediately followed, such as The Life of the Party (1920) and Brewster’s Millions (1921), were polite drawing room comedies based on popular stories, novels or plays, and were very plot heavy.
Unfortunately we don’t have access to all of his features, but by the time of Crazy to Marry and Leap Year he moved to farce comedy – which was better suited to his talents and gave him more situations to react to and opportunity to work in more helpings of slapstick. At the time of his banishment from the screen Paramount had very similar properties lined up for his next projects, so it seems likely that he would have stayed in that style.
It’s great to see Arbuckle’s directorial career represented as well. What led you to choose the particular films featured here? ( ‘Dynamite Doggie’, ‘Home cured’, ‘Never Again’, ‘Stupid But Brave’, ‘Honeymoon Trio’)
SM: The particular directorial films chosen for the set were picked for their excellence as well as their rarity and unavailability. In all of them Roscoe uses a very restrained and low-key approach that has the slapstick growing logically out of the situations. He gets very natural performances from the actors, with wonderful close-ups and reaction shots. His early sound short Honeymoon Trio (1931) will be a surprise to many people. It’s Roscoe’s “road film” – a black comic version of Detour (1946) and The Hitch-Hiker (1953), as Al St John and Dorothy Grainger head off on their honeymoon motor trip with Al’s former rival Walter Catlett in tow. Powerless to thwart or even shut up the obnoxious Catlett, Al is symbolically cuckolded as he’s caught in a never-ending honeymoon from hell.
Do you each have a favourite film or gag from the set?
SM: One of my favorite films on the set is The Gangsters (1913). This was Roscoe’s very first film for Mack Sennett, it’s amazing to see how he hit the ground running. Besides being very funny he pulls the focus whenever he’s on screen, and his “Fatty” character is already developed at this early date. When this was made Roscoe was already a well-seasoned performer, having spent a decade touring with various stock companies around the U.S. and Asia. His film experience before this had been very limited – brief sojourns for Selig and Nestor, but he instinctively seemed to understand the intimacy of the movie camera. Understanding it, he used that intimacy extremely well and quickly became an audience favorite around the world.
CK: These films are so rare, I won’t have a chance to see the films until the scans have come in from the archives. We received our first film last week, The Sea Nymphs (1914) from the Danish Film Institute, and it was so much fun to watch, with extended scenes shot on Catalina Island.
What do you hope viewers will take away from this set? Is there a particular facet of Arbuckle’s talents you’d like them to have a new appreciation for?
SM: I’d like viewers to get a full picture of what an excellent overall comedy creator Roscoe was. He’s best remembered for his on screen persona, but his work behind the camera gets taken for granted. He was a very sophisticated writer and director – even as early as 1915 his sure hand can be seen in films like That Little Band of Gold, Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916), and He Did and He Didn’t (1916). That’s why after the scandal he was able to transition so easily to just writing and directing. He was already a pro, and turned out excellent shorts with comics such as Al St John, Lloyd Hamilton, Lupino Lane and Johnny Arthur.
So there you have it: a fantastic set rammed full of rarities featuring one of the true comic pioneers. I’m sure you won’t want to miss out on this chance to rediscover Roscoe! Here’s the link to the Kickstarter, and the full planned contents:
The Gangsters(1913) – 10 min, Museum of Modern Art Roscoe had been making sporadic appearances for Selig and Nestor since 1909. The Gangsters is his very first film for Keystone, where he shares the picture with Fred Mace and becomes an overnight Mack Sennett star.
A Noise From the Deep (1913) – 10 min, Museum of Modern Art The earliest surviving film of Roscoe with his frequent co-star Mabel Normand. It is also considered to have the first use of a thrown Keystone pie.
An Incompetent Hero (1914) – 12 min, Library of Congress Roscoe is a victim of circumstances in this rarely seen comedy, which also highlights Edgar Kennedy, Minta Durfee, Al St John, and Roscoe’s tight rope walking skills.
The Sea Nymphs (1914) – 25 min, Restored by the Danish Film Institute Mabel, Roscoe and a seal have fun in the surf at Catalina, in a new scan made from the only known surviving print.
Crazy to Marry (1921) – 40 min, Restored by Cinematek (Brussels) This was the sixth of Roscoe’s starring features, and was only in theatres for about a week before being yanked out of distribution and vanishing. This rare survivor illustrates how Roscoe was taking polite comedy plots and working in more and more of his signature physical gags and slapstick.
Bonus: New reconstruction of Fatty and the Broadway Stars (1916) – 7 mins, Nationalbiblioteket (Oslo) & Private collection / Restored by theUSC HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive Only a few 35mm and 9.5mm chunks are all that’s known to exist today of this short. The Triangle Film Corp. had hired famous stage stars like Weber & Fields and William Collier to give prestige to their films, and used Roscoe to introduce some of these stage personalities to movie audiences.
Disc Two
Never Again (1924) – 12 min, Lobster/Blackhawk Roscoe here reworks the plots of Fatty at San Diego (1913) and A Reckless Romeo (1917) for his nephew Al St John. Scanned from the only surviving print.
Stupid but Brave (1924) – 21 min, Private collection / Restored by the USC HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive Having been banned from the screen, Roscoe focused on writing and directing, creating excellent comedies with Ned Sparks, Poodles Hanneford and Al St John.
Dynamite Doggie (1925) – 24 min, Lobster/Blackhawk Al St John co-stars with Pete the Pup in this rarity that reworks material from Love (1919) and Sherlock Jr. (1924), as well as early films that featured Roscoe’s dog Luke.
Home Cured (1926) – 10 min, Library of Congress Roscoe launched the series of Tuxedo Comedies for Educational Pictures which starred the fairly new screen comic Johnny Arthur. Scanned from the only known 35mm material, Johnny is a hypochondriac whose wife has had enough.
Honeymoon Trio (1931) – 12 min, Library of Congress This early sound short is Roscoe’s “road film,” a black comic version of Detour (1946) or The Hitchhiker (1953) that details Al St John on a never-ending honeymoon from hell.
Bonus: Video essay on Roscoe Arbuckle’s life and career.
Huge thanks to Steve and Crystal for giving their time to answer my questions, and for their efforts in making this project happen. I’m really excited for this set!
