Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Really Old Movies

I finally broke down and watched some Harold Lloyd shorts (Never Weaken and Haunted Spooks) last night.  I didn't find either of them completely hilarious but they had their moments.  It is wild, knowing that some of these are literally 100 years old.  I think I'm pretty well covered in terms of mid-career Chaplin, and eventually I'll get around to his last few films, i.e. the talkies.*  But I thought I would track some other early stars that I am just not actually that familiar with.  I'll list them in descending order of interest (to me), and I expect that the first two or three in each group, I'll try to watch with my son, while I'll watch the others on my own on evenings he has too much homework or the Bulls or Bears are playing or what have you.

Buster Keaton:
The General  
Sherlock, Jr. 
Seven Chances 
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
The Paleface (Not what I was expecting and so terribly cringe-worthy)
Our Hospitality 
The Navigator
Go West** 
The Saphead (had to stop midway through; surely Keaton's worst feature)
Three Ages

Harold Lloyd:
Safety Last 
Speedy
Why Worry?
Girl Shy 
The Freshman
Number Please
The Cat's-Paw
The Milky Way

W.C. Fields:
My Little Chickadee
The Bank Dick
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
It's a Gift
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man

(Remaining) Marx Brothers:
A Day at the Races 
Room Service
At the Circus
Go West
The Big Store

I'll check them off as I get around to them.  Quite a few of them are longer than I would expect (sometimes pushing 90 minutes!), but some are shorter, which is certainly appealing to me right now when I feel so pressed for time.

* In terms of early Chaplin, ages and ages ago I watched The Unknown Chaplin (probably on HBO), which was very cool, since it went into some detail on how he constructed some of his best gags and stunts.  It looks like this might still be available in the UK, and maybe I will go ahead and plump for it.  I probably should go ahead and watch The Kid, which is essentially feature-length, and I just put a copy on hold through the library.  It appears that most of the other First National shorts are on a DVD called Chaplin Revue from Artificial Eye, but it is a little bit of a crap shoot to be honest.  BFI has a pretty good collection of all the Mutual comedies (either in DVD or Blu-Ray).  I can probably live without the Keystone or Essanay shorts to be honest.

** This seems to be the only Keaton feature I don't have on one set or another.  Fortunately, Robarts does have a copy, so I should be able to borrow that in early January.

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