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The Shorts:
Undercrank Productions has released Accidentally Preserved
Volume Two, a second DVD of rare and obscure silent shorts
featuring some great, forgotten comedians. This disc features the
likes of Bobby Vernon, Lloyd Hamilton and Neely Edwards, and if
those names are unfamiliar to you, that's all the more reason to
pick up a copy of this very good collection.
There are eight shorts, mostly comedies, and an animated commercial
on this volume that were made between 1919 and 1929, all accompanied
by Ben Model on the organ or piano. The collection starts off with a
Bobby Vernon short, Why Wild Men Go Wild. Vernon was pretty
big name in comedy shorts in the 1910's and 20's, appearing in over
200 films, but he never made the transition to sound and is now
largely forgotten. This short shows the start as a peppy, energetic,
and personable actor who is great in situational comedy. He plays
the carousing roommate of a wealthy heir, Jimmy (James Harrison),
who has to clean up his act when going visiting his friend's estate
for the weekend. He puts on glasses and a boyish hat and impresses
the father, but Jimmy's attractive sister (Vera Steadman) thinks
he's a sap. She announces that she only likes wild men and gives him
the brush off... so Jimmy and Bobby hatch a plan to have her meet
someone really wild. Unfortunately, things don't go exactly as they
had hoped.
One of the films I was eager to see in this collection was Charley
on the Farm, an animated Charlie Chaplin film. Chaplin didn't
have anything to do with the script or animation, but he was
supportive of these shorts created at Nestor and distributed by
Universal. After all it kept his name in the all-too-quick-to-forget
public's eye, and he wasn't one to be rushed when it came to his own
films. This cartoon is one in a series directed by Pat Sullivan and
animated by Otto Mesmer, the men would later be responsible for
Felix the Cat, and after watching this earlier film one can see
influence that Chaplin had on the popular feline. While this entry
is an interesting cartoon, it's a little curious that Mesmer and
Sullivan used standard cartoon-style gags rather than trying to
mimic The Tramp's shorts. Instead "Charlie" takes a job as a farm
hand and has trouble milking cows (he tries to crank the tails) and
then 'dresses' the chickens in tuxedos before taking them in for
dinner.
The Lloyd Hamilton short, Papa's Boy, is also fun but
illustrates the difference between the good and great comics. While
it has some funny gags, the film is basically an assorted jumble of
jokes that are a bit strained. Lloyd is a butterfly collector whose
father hires a man to take the lad out into the wild to toughen him
up. The first half has Lloyd trying to catch a butterfly (he
mistakes a tattoo on a woman's leg for the real thing and attempts
to snag it with some extendable pincers) and then the film heads out
to the forest where he gets stuck inside a tree and the guide tries
to chop him out with an axe. It's not that the short is bad, it's
not at all... you just have to work a bit harder to suspend your
disbelief when compared with a Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton short.
There is a great bit where Lloyd and his guide encounter an
alligator. While most of it is done with a fake gator, there are a
couple of shots with the actors sharing the scene with a live
animal. I was pretty surprised.
One short I really enjoy is "Big Boy" film Helter Skelter.
The penultimate entry in a series of shorts, Malcom Sebastian stared
as a young kid who gets into trouble. Adorable and with a lot of
screen presence, Sebastian and the dog who costars with him are a
great pair and it makes for a funny short. It's basically an
extended chase scene, but a very enjoyable chase scene that's
tightly scripted. Watching the white dog get covered in ashes,
cleaned, and then covered again and again was a great running gag
and the fact that they worked it in so many times was pretty
impressive. Unfortunately the first reel is lost but the second one
is presented here with a quick title card to bring viewers up to
date with what they missed.
Another short that's worth seeking out is Sherlock's Home,
an entry in the Telephone Girl series revolving around two roommates
(Alberta Vaughn and Gertrude Short) who run the switchboard at a
fancy hotel. In this installment (the fourth in the series) a prize
fighter takes a shine to Alberta and tries to woo her with a trip to
the beach and ring-side seats to his next fight. She's not
interested however, and that just makes the champ even more
determined. It's a nice comedy that worked well and was fun to
watch.
There's also an educational short, How Jimmy Won the Game,
teaching children not to play with blasting caps. I remember PSAs in
the 1960's warning of the same thing and I always wondered why
people left explosives lying around for kids to find. The film is
prefaced with the announcement that 500 children are injured every
year by these devices used to detonate dynamite sticks, so I guess a
lot of people did. In any case this shows the dangers of blasting
caps and features a race to stop Jack, the star pitcher of a local
baseball team, from hitting one with a rock just for fun. Jimmy, the
son of the foreman at the quarry, warns Jack's mom about the danger
her son is in and explains "If he blows his hands off we'll lose the
championship!" Good thing Jack was a talented athlete of Jimmy might
have let him get maimed.
The shorts included in this collection are:
Why Wild Men Go Wild - with Bobby Vernon and Jimmy Harrison (1920)
Charley on the Farm - Chaplin cartoon (1919) - 10 mins
Sherlock's Home - Alberta Vaughn (1924) - 21 mins
The Little Pest - Neely Edwards (1927) - 10 mins
Papa's Boy - Lloyd Hamilton (1927) - 16 mins
Helter Skelter - Malcolm "Big Boy" Sebastian (1929) - 8 mins
Cook, Papa, Cook - Henry Murdock (1928) - 9 mins
How Jimmy Won the Game - blasting cap safety film (1928) - 14 mins
Christmas Seals film - animated theatre ad (1925) - 3 mins
The DVD:
Audio:
The audio accompanying these films is just as good as the soundtrack
on the first volume. If you've ever seen a silent film with random
music played over it (as public domain publishers often do) you'll
know how much a good score adds to the viewing experience. Ben Model
provides the music for these shorts, from scores he composed, and
they are great. These tracks fit the subject matter and the music
(preformed on both organ and piano) really helps to bring the films
to life. There are no dropouts or other audio defects.
Video:
These are exceedingly rare movies, some of them from the only print
in existence, but the image quality is surprisingly good. There is
some nitrate decomposition that's noticeable, and sometimes the
detail isn't as sharp as it could be, but those instances are the
exception rather than the rule. Taken from 16mm prints, the picture
is has good contrast in general and is easy on the eyes overall.
Extras:
The only extra is a page saying thanks to the Kickstarter backers.
Final Thoughts:
All of the shorts in this collection are worth watching. They're
fun, historically important, and feature some rarely seen comedians.
While I did enjoy the first volume a bit more, this companion piece
is well worth adding to your collection. Highly Recommended.
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