DVD Review: Movie Man's Matinee Volume 4

When exploring film history, it is important to venture down the bypaths that take us away from the iconic screen legends and allow us to discover some great talents whose names just didn't live on. This is especially true in silent comedy, where so many skilled, outrageously funny performers were active. The Movie Man's Matinee series allows us to do that.

The fourth and latest volume, produced by John K. Carpenter and distributed by Alpha Video, features seven little known silent comedy gems featuring a number of performers who are unfairly forgotten today.

The set opens with the outrageous "Ye Olden Grafter" (1915), a Keystone comedy that extends beyond the typical park setting and standard plot of a stolen purse, and layers it with an "olden times" motif that causes it to seem a bit quirkier and funnier. Mack Swain stars with Mae Busch and Eddie Cline, who would later become a director and helm some of W.C. Fields' best features.

This is followed by the wonderfully creative "A Lucky Leap" (1915), in which a young, almost boyish looking Charley Chase is vying for the attention of a grocer's daughter against chubby Fritz Schade. This romantic conflict is distracting enough to allow a couple of crooks to make off with the grocer's safe, thus prompting a wild chase. An explosive scene where a large vinegar barrel in the cellar springs a leak and sprays all over the store while everyone frantically attempts to contain it; and some wild leaps and slides down a pretty steep mountain, are among this Keystone comedy's slapstick highlights.

"A Human Hound's Triump" (1915) is another Keystone featuring Mack Swain as a crook who is staying at a boarding house and planing a crime, without realizing that the chubby woman in the next room is an undercover cop (Fritz Schade). Another wildly funny slapstick comedy, this one also employs some reverse projection scenes in the climactic chase, and fun performances by Mae Busch and Harry McCoy. There is some impressive editing, from long shots, to medium shots, to close-ups of a bouncing Mack Swain on horseback in pursuit of a car.

"A Billionaire for a Minute" (1915) is a fantasy comedy from Universal featuring Gale Henry as a schoolmarm and Max Asher as the farm hand who loves her. Max can't get consent from Gale's uncle (Billy Franey), so he wishes on a magic ring, and makes his dreams come true. This is one of the more clever, funnier comedies in the set with some creative ideas that extend past the knockabout situations. Gale and Max respond to the wealth that has been thrust upon them, with more intricate nuance than the broader gestures of the Keystones.

The much later "Eats for Two" (1927) shows how screen comedy went from the slapstick of the teens to the more farcical comedies of the 20s. Phil Dunham stars as a man who must keep his wife and mistress from finding out about one another, while his wife has her own secrets. The farce element does not mean slapstick is avoided. This one ends with a woman hooked by her backside onto the hanging hook of a speeding tow truck, being pursued by a man on a tricycle!

There is an extra historical interest in "Nifty Numbers" in that it is part of Al Christie's "Confessions of a Chorus Girl" series featuring "the most beautiful girls in Hollywood." In this case, that means Frances Lee, Aileen Carlyle, and Margaret Lee. This one is pretty risqué, with chorus girls being hired to model bathing suits at a swank hotel. In order to do so, they get involved in a game of strip poker with some men, the cards stacked against them so they can strip down to the bathing suits and show them off. This is hilariously staged within the film, as several men staying at the hotel crowd around the door and try to look into the keyhole. Then the janitor comes, climbs atop the group of men huddled around the door, and bores holes with a drill, giving him a clearer look at the women. Through a series of circumstance, the girls' clothing is stolen, so their manager (Billy Engle) must find them while they hide in a broom closet. The girls are discovered, so they flee out the window just as their clothing is found.

Finally, Bobby Vernon stars in "Sappy Service" (1929), a comedy that came along during the final days of the silent era. In fact, it was Bobby's final silent film. It is also one of his funniest. He plays a process server who needs to get a client in court to testify, so he pursues him in a hospital while dressed as a baby, spraying him with a toxic concoction that makes him woozy and mailable. He then plops him on a bed and wheels him down the street, still dressed in a baby outfit, and gets him into court. Faced paced, frenetic, and bizarre, this is another one of the funniest comedies in this set.

Now that we are up to four volumes of rare silent comedies in this series, we see how silent comedy is much more than iconic masters like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. While the Big 3, as they are known, certainly defined the genre and helped create the language of cinema, the many skilled and amusing performers who were also active at the time should not be overlooked. So many films from the silent era are lost, and not all that survive are accessible. We commend Mr. Carpenter for opening up his private vault, and Alpha Video for distributing so many little known treasures. It not only provides enjoyment, it expands our knowledge and appreciation of silent comedy's rich history.

The quality of these films is surprisingly good, especially in regard to how rare some of them are. They are, as advertised, from someone's private home library so their quality is as good as that. In any case, for silent comedy fans, this one is recommended.

This set is available at this link: Matinee Vol. 4