Thursday, January 03, 2008

Unmasked (1913)- Francis Ford moves up to Directing and Acting.  Good stuff actually.  Intertitle: Two hands made for criminal enterprise; First shot: A woman with her back to us, two hands slowly move into view, stop and hover over her, then slowly retreat.  The woman is another thief, and the thief (played by Francis Ford) has seen better pickings on the hostess of the masked ball.  The woman thief, played by Grace Cunard, recognizes him as a master thief, and “His were the craftier hands, and she envied him for it.” Ford steals a necklace from the hostess and takes off, host and female thief in hot pursuit.  Ford shakes the posse, but she trails him to his house, breaks in, and when caught, flirts with him and steals his watch.  He thinks it’s great. But he has left his cane behind, and the monogram on it matches one on his ring, so the cops sniff him out and arrest him at his club.  Grace, meanwhile has broken into his house and stolen the necklace. He is on trial and there are great big close-ups, in fact the whole trial and conviction is done in merely three shots, all Close Ups: Judge, Sad Ford, Sad Grace.  Next shot, he is in jail and she is pledging to get him out. She takes the necklace, breaks back into the hostess’ house and replaces the necklace.  This results in Ford being freed and they end together.

There are a lot of close-ups in this, and some insert shots as well.  Parallel cutting is in evidence between Grace stealing the necklace from Ford at his house, while the police are sniffing out and arresting Ford at the theater. Also the exit into camera gag.  Pretty good build of suspense at the beginning.  Has the makings of a bigger show if someone ran with it.   A little of this storyline exists between Tom Cruise and Thandie Newton in MI2.

Fatty’s Magic Pants aka Fatty’s Suitless Day (1914) -Directed by Fatty himself, as Francis has risen, so by 1914 has Fatty.  He is the biggest star in Silent comedy, bar none, and Chaplin only starts working for Sennett in February of 1914, though within 2 movies he would create his “little tramp” character, and takeoff to international superstardom, loved absolutely universally across the world.  But for the moment, Fatty is king, and he is now an auteur.

In a nutshell, this story is about Fatty competing with a rival for a girl, by taking her to a fancy “Tango Whirl” at “Lady Bottany’s City House” (50 cents, Ladies free).  Trouble is, only the rival has the requisite fancy dress to get in. So Fatty, naturally steals the suit and puts it on, comically too small.  He takes the girl to the dance, pursued by his rival, who sneaks in and sabotages Fatty’s pants so that he can pull them off with a rope, which he does.  Fatty freaks out and hides behind a table which is carried into the main ballroom by two butlers.  When detected in his underwear, all the ladies freak out, and the men are enraged and chaos ensues. Fatty is chased by a gun shooting nut, his rival steals the coat as well.  Fatty is driven to dive out a window where a cop arrests him for indecency and takes him to jail in a barrel. END.

Once again, inserts are used for exposition, in this case the flyer for the ball. Not a lot of parallel cutting here, or fancy camera tricks.  This is Sennett and he keeps it straight and linear.

As 1914 ends, the world is at war.  In January, Ford announces the 8 hour workday, and $5 minimum wage per day, making Ford the best paid employees on earth.  Also in 1914, the Colorado National Guard attacks 1200 striking coal miners, killing 24.  3000 US Marines land at Veracruz, Mexico after “The Tampico Incident” and occupy the city for 6 monthes.  On June 28, in Sarajevo, a man assassinates Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, and one month later the First World War begins on July 28, with Austro-Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia.  By August, Germany is deep into Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, and the British Expeditionary Force is racing to stop the German advance.  In September, the passenger pigeon becomes extinct in Cincinnati.  By the end of the war, which the USA would not show up for until 1918, there would be almost 18 Million dead and missing, and more than 21 Million wounded, all over the world.

Her Painted Hero (1915) by F. Richard Jones for Mack Sennett, starring Polly Moran, Slim Summerville, Hale Hamilton, and Charles Murray.  Fun, oddball story about a “matinee idoler”(Moran), a working class pun if ever there was one, who has a huge crush on a matinee idol and stage star actor (Hamilton).  Summerville and Murray are two handymen who are rivals for her affection.  Once she becomes an heiress(of a sewer contractor king!), that is.  Also, a protective brother is thrown into the mix for physical combat’s sake, such as his horrible table manners.  The heiress wants to act, so she pays for a new show she can act in with the object of her affection. Some bombs thrown by Summerville and Murray burn down the set, she is hoisted up by her backside by the curtain, the whole thing falls apart, and she is left alone!

Some great scenes here, particularly when the play goes REALLY wrong. The fire is impressive, as is the hoist of her at the finale. Some parallel cutting, an Insert of pants catching fire, nothing too fancy as once again this IS Sennett.

Love, Speed, and Thrills (1915), directed by Mack Sennett himself.  This is Mack Swain versus Chester Conklin for the hand of Mrs. Swain (Minta Durfee).  The Keystone Cops are also involved in the chaos.  Mr. Walrus (Conklin) is out trying to shoot a black cat, he accidentally shoots Mr. Ambrose (Swain) in the ass.  Swain hits him with a rock that knocks him off a cliff.  Ambrose saves him by lassoing him around the neck and pulling him up.  He takes him home and leaves his wife to care for Walrus.  Walrus makes a remarkable recovery and begins molesting Mrs. Ambrose.  A passerby who comes to help her is knocked out by her by accident.  Conklin then knocks out Ambrose and escapes with Mrs. Ambrose under arm, in a motorcycle/sidecar.  Ambrose pursues on a horse.  The cops are notified and begin to intercept on foot.  Several impressive stunt gags involving knocking Mrs. Ambrose in and out of the bike occur, lots of shooting at the pursuers, and a good general chase ensues.  The Cops try to short cut by boat.  First Ambrose steals her out of the sidecar, then Conklin steals her back.  Finally the Motorcycle destroys a railing on a VERY HIGH road bridge and tumbles over (very impressive), Mr. Ambrose saves Mrs. Ambrose with the lasso, and Conklin is caught by the cops when he falls into the water below.

Some crazy ass stunts in this one, especially hitting Mrs. Ambrose with a rope strung across the road as she drives into it in the moto-sidecar.  Cliffs and Bridges make their debut to electric effect.  Parallel editing in this one, cops, Conklin/Durfee, and Ambrose all having their own “story” and visual progression.

Mabel, Fatty, and the Law aka Fatty’s Spooning Days (1915) again we have Fatty directing, and co-writing with Richard Wagner with Mabel Norman costarring.  This one is just bizarre.  It feels like what Iran might be like with “morality police” roaming the street.  The premise here depends on “No Spooning Allowed”, posted by park benchs and vigorously enforced by the Keystone Cops!  Spooning is apparently being in the company of a woman, and either holding her hand while walking, or putting your arm around her while sitting!  Spooning!!  Public Displays of affection punished by “30 Dollars or 30 days”!

Once again we have Fatty and amorous problems, and the keystone cops throwing people in jail.  Fatty is hanging out playing piano with his gal, in an impetuous moment he pecks her on the cheek and she kicks his ASS.  Fatty’s rival, is flirting with the help, then takes his lady out to the park.  Fatty and his girl make camp on a bench, and start “spooning”.  The rival is trying to make time with his lady, though in both cases the women point out the signs.  There are many close-ups of Fatty’s rival’s leers at the woman, a POV shot done in an iris ring.  In the distance, literally up a tree with a police call box nailed to the trunk, scanning the horizon with a telescope, is a keystone cop who spots the felonious spooning type activity.  Fatty’s rival meanwhile has grossed out his girl who goes for an ice cream.  Fatty sees her and recognizes her and also goes for ice cream.  The rival now starts flirting (and it is returned) with Fatty’s girl!  Fatty picks up on the rivals girl and they walk off with their ice cream together!   Then the cops show up and the rival and Fatty’s girl run off and escape.  Fatty and the other girl get busted though and it’s 30 bucks or 30 days for “the offenses”.  Fatty has to call his wife, and the rivals girl calls the rival.  Both come down and get them out of jail, while trying to pretend that they don’t know each other simultaneously being “outraged” at their spouses indiscretions!  Plenty of falls and kicks and slaps abound in this one.

Pretty funny actually.  A good premise, and makes you understand what Chaplin meant when he said “all I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman, and a pretty girl.”   This may be the best Fatty Arbuckle flick yet. There is a weird phenomenon happening though with Arbuckle and my understanding of his film character versus his real life.  In real life, in 1921, Fatty became the subject of the first real Hollywood scandal, and William Randolph Hearst was on the scene to fan the flames of public outrage. Though tried 3 trimes and acquitted for the rape and/or manslaughter of Virginia Rappe (odd name coincidence, eh? Creepy) his career was effectively finished, though his films still made modest money, he was no longer a star.  He died in 1933 of a heart attack, his last days being supported by “the kid he gave a break” (in 1917) one Buster Keaton.  In Fatty’s films, he plays an amorous cowardly thief who is always eventually punished, usually by beatings and jail.  It is small wonder that the average moron of the 20’s would want to buy in to the “public image” created by this film persona.  Even today, people are so simple minded that they have a great deal of difficulty distinguishing play or acting from REALITY!   This is, of course, derangement, yet it is so common it is frequently rationalized as normal or even GOOD!  This of course leads to all sorts of complex hatreds, confusions, hypocrisys, etc.  Fatty seems to be the first casualty of the creation of a screen persona, but he won’t be the last.

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