GREAT FILM COMEDIES AND COMEDIANS

So here it is up and running at last (I hope), blog number 4 and potentially a massive undertaking, the history of film comedy starting with the three great silent comedians starting with the man above the great Charlie Chaplin followed by Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Then I shall move into the talkies starting with Laurel and Hardy and The Marx Brothers then probably onto screwball comedies. What comes after that has not yet been decided as I wish to leave myself some flexibility but I suspect I shall end up concentrate on English language comedies and comedians although at some point the great French comedian Jacques Tati may get a look in. So let the fun begin and first I shall write about Chaplin after I've watched some of his early Keystone comedies on DVD. So back in a few days.

9/2/23. So the plan from here is to get started with Chaplin by watching his Keystone shorts for which I have a boxset. I also have some books to read so more to come.

16/2/23. First part of the plan is to get watching Chaplin's Keystone films which I did this morning. There are 34 altogether, mostly shorts. The ones I watched this morning (the first six) were all under 20 minutes. Keystone boss Mack Sennet hired Chaplin in 2014 not long after Chaplin had come to America with the Fred Karno company. His debut film was Making A Living but the charscter was not his iconic Tramp persona but a dandyish type character. He sports a top hat, frock coat, monocle and moustache so the seeds of the Tramp are there. In his second film Kid Auto Races In Venice audiences got their first glimpse of The Tramp as the character causes chaos at a motor race track.

17/2/23. So didn't say much about the other 4 films yesterday. Couldn't think of a lot to say. Hopefully will have more to write as I get more into the films. Chaplin's filmography, though long splits into fairly well defined eras defined to some extent by the studios he worked for. There were the 36 he made at Keystone followed by 15 at Essanay, 12 at Mutual, 9 at First National then the features he made for United Artists his own co-owned company. I think for these earlier films I will focus on Chaplin's development as a film maker and performer. So back in a few days when I've seen a few more of his films.

23/2/23. Watched the next four of Chaplin's Keystone shorts yesterday and got a little more into them this time. I enjoyed the 20 minute 2 reeler Mabel At The Wheel in which Chaplin co-stars with Mabel Normand who also co-directed the film with Mack Sennet who was her lover at that time. In this one Charlie does not assume his Tramp persona but plays the story's villain. He argued with Normand about the film and Normand complained to Sennet and tried to get him fired. But Charlie's poularity was

on the rise and he was becoming an asset to Keystone so he was not fired.

25/2/23. So that's the first dozen Chaplin at Keystone shorts watched and disc one of the four in the box set watched. And I am getting to the point now where Chaplin's creative involvement in the films is increasing as the two I watched this morning Twenty Minutes of Love and Caught In A Cabaret had some script writing input from Charlie and Twenty Minutes of Love being co-directed by him. So getting more interesting.

11/3/23. So a fortnight since an entry or indeed watching a Chaplin film so need to rectify that by getting into disc two of the Chaplin at Keystone DVD. And perhaps a little more background reading on the great man and possibly some reflections on that. Time perhaps to pick up speed with this Chaplin blog and hopefully that will happen as I get further into his career and the films get better and more interesting.

21/3/23. So has it really been a month since I watched some Chaplin. Very nearly as attested by the dates on my last three entries. But I have watched five films this morning so that's half of what's on Disc Two and I will be back later to give my thoughts on them after I've done a bit of background reading.

21/3/23. So five Chaplin Keystone films watched today varying in length from 5 minutes to 30 minutes and the 30 minutes one was really a Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle vehicle and Charlie doesn't even appear until twenty minutes in. At this time Arbuckle would have been the bigger more established star as Chaplin was just beginning to rise. Chaplin plays a boxing match referee and is involved in the typical Keystone melee that climaxes the film. So Chaplin, I guess, is both fulfilling contractual obligations whilst also developing his craft, In fact the first of the five films watched today 'Caught in the Rain' was his debut as a director as well as being the script writer.

22/3/23. Disc two of Chaplin at Keystone now watched. Some tropes of these shorts are now becoming familiar to me although not sure which are Chaplin tropes and which are Keystone tropes but I am sure that will become clearer as I watch more Chaplin at different studios and as I delve further into his oeuvre. But thus far it is noticeable how many of these Keystone shorts are set in parks (the same park I believe, called Echo Park, near the Keystone studio) and on park benches where men fight over pretty girls. There is much violence involved with punching, pushing, arse kicking and the throwing of bricks at each other. Of the five watched four of them are written and directed by Chaplin so he is beginning to learn the whole of his filmmaking craft and I notice from reading the credits of the films in the BFI booklet that comes with the boxset that Chaplin writes and directs pretty much all the time from hereon in. I thought the short entitled The Face on the Barroom Floor was an interesting indicator as to how Chaplin would later move away from knockabout comedy to more character driven comedy.

28/3/23. Third disc now watched in full just one disc left of the Chaplin at Keystone box set which includes the full length feature Tillie's Punctured Romance but more on that later. As I watch these early Chaplin shorts made in 1914 I have to keep reminding myself that cinema at this time was in its infancy and it was only twenty years since the Lumiere Brothers had made those first early shorts. Hence we are back at the beginning of both the creative and commercial possibilities of cinema being explored. Probably fair to say Chaplin would have been more interested in the creative possibilities than the Keystone boss Mack Sennett. It is clear from these early years of Chaplin that he was looking to develop the craft of cinema storytelling especially as he took more and more creative control and very quickly.

3/4/23. Started on disc 4 today. Just three on here and a few extras then that's the Keystone years done with. On this disc there is a one reeler and two reeler plus the feature length Tillie's Punctured Romance so today I watched the one reeler and two reeler plus most of the extras so just Tillie's Punctured Romance to watch. Then I can move on to the Essanay period and more progress to write about.

4/4/23. Just a few last words about the Chaplin at Keystone DVD before moving on to the Essanay period. Whilst these early Chaplin shorts are a long way from the glories of The Kid and The Gold Rush it has been interesting watching Chaplin learn and develop his craft. There are bound to be people at the beginning of a new and developing entertainment and/or art form looking ahead and Chaplin obviously saw the story telling opportunities that cinema offered. Even at this early stage he saw how character driven stories could work in cinema.