In the Dough - 1932

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Ray McCarey

Writer: Jack Henley (story)

Stars: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle

Release Date: 15 November 1933 (USA)

Production Co: The Vitaphone Corporation, Warner Bros. Pictures

Plot Keywords: Slapstick

Genres: Short | Comedy

"In the Dough" is very funny. It's one of the six short comedies that Roscoe Arbuckle filmed at Warner Brothers' Vitaphone studio in Brooklyn in the early talkie era. The funniest of these is "Buzzin' Around", but "In the Dough" is a close second in hilarity. Roscoe is at the top of his form, and Shemp Howard (the sometime Stooge) is funny here too.

Roscoe applies for a job in a bakery. When asked why he wants to be a baker, Roscoe grins broadly and replies: "Because I knead the dough."

Just when Roscoe is mixing a big vat of dough, along comes a hoodlum running a protection racket, played by the gifted comic actor Lionel Stander. One thing leads to six others, and soon Roscoe and Lionel have begun a bitter battle in the boiling biscuit batter. I usually don't see anything funny about actors getting splattered with sticky goo, but "In the Dough" is an exception.

There's a nice running gag about a Karl LaFong-ish customer who orders a birthday cake with very specific decorations: he wants "a large 'S' ... a capital 'S'." But this gag has been re-used by other comedians, so you probably know the punchline.

When I saw "In the Dough" at the American Museum of the Moving Image, with an audience full of New Yorkers, most of the audience members laughed at a stock shot of a police car stopping near a billboard for the Greenpoint Savings Bank. Apparently this is funny to New Yorkers.

The same stock shot turned up in another of Arbuckle's Vitaphone movies, and the audience laughed even harder the second time it showed up.

"In the Dough" was directed by Ray McCarey, brother of comedy legend Leo McCarey. While definitely not as talented as his brother, Ray McCarey made some excellent films and he deserves to be remembered as an efficient comedy director in his own right.

Trivia

Vitaphone production reels #1568-1569.

One Touch of Nature - 1914

Country: United States

Language: English (intertitles)

Director: Ashley Miller

Writer: Courtney Ryley Cooper (story)

Stars: John Sturgeon, Elizabeth Miller and T. Tamamoto

Release Date: 8 August 1914 (USA)

Production Co: Edison Company

Runtime: 16 min

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Short | Comedy

Mr. Bradley has been getting increasingly irritable, and today he is annoyed by everything, constantly snapping at the servants and at his wife. Then, as he is being driven by his chauffeur, the car stalls. Mr. Bradley becomes impatient with the chauffeur's repair work, and wanders off into a nearby woods. When he sees a boy fishing in a stream, he strikes up a conversation with him. Soon Mr. Bradley starts to think that a little time spent outdoors might be just what he needs to calm his nerves.

Trivia

A copy of this film survives at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. 

Hello, Mabel - 1914

Country: United States

Language: English

Stars: Mabel Normand, Mack Swain and Alice Davenport

Release Date: 8 October 1914 (USA)

Also known as: Hola, Mabel (Venezuela); On a Busy Wire (USA - reissue title)

Production Co: Keystone Film Company

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Short | Comedy

Sold at Auction - 1923

Country: United States

Director: Charles Parrott

Writer: H.M. Walker (titles)

Stars: 'Snub' Pollard, Wallace Howe and James Finlayson

Release Date: 27 May 1923 (USA)

Production Co: Hal Roach Studios

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Short | Comedy

This film starts with some of the wildest and most spectacular car stunts you'll ever see in a silent film. Eventually, Snub is tossed hundreds of feet into an auction house and his sudden appearance actually encourages the listless audience to start bidding. The auction house owner then gets an idea--hire Snub and arrange scores of "accidents" just outside the auction house to help sell merchandise. Amazingly, it works, though Snub is beaten senseless in each case.

Later, due to a mix up, the auction house accidentally sells the furnishings of James Finlayson's house. Finlayson is naturally enraged and it's up to the hapless Snub to retrieve everything. What is so funny here is the extremes to which he goes to get everything--ranging from starting fights to stealing an airplane! The sight gags abound and you certainly can't fall asleep during all this frenetic action. In fact, the film is so fast-paced and violent that it doesn't look like a Hal Roach Studios production (which it is) but is actually more reminiscent of the best of Keystone (Sennett) Studios.

A lovely and funny film thanks to great direction, gags and Snub.

The Little Teacher - 1915

Country: United States

Director: Mack Sennett

Stars: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett

Release Date: 21 June 1915 (USA)

Also known as: A Small Town Bully (undefined), Small Town School (USA - working title)

Filming Locations: Hollenbeck Park - 415 S. St. Louis Street, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California, USA

Production Co: Keystone Film Company

Runtime: 21 min

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: School | Rural | Schoolteacher | Rescue | One Room Schoolhouse

Genres: Short | Comedy

The new school teacher fresh from the city struggles with her unruly bumpkin students, while she awaits the arrival of her fiancé. 

Old Ironsides - 1926

Country: United States

Director: James Cruze

Writers: Laurence Stallings (story), Harry Carr (suggested and adapted by), Walter Woods (suggested and adapted by), Rupert Hughes (titles), Dorothy Arzner (uncredited)

Oliver Wendell Holmes (poem - uncredited)

Stars: Charles Farrell, Esther Ralston and Wallace Beery

Release Date: 6 December 1926 (USA)

Also known as: Fragata Invicta (Portugal); Havets Befrier (Denmark); Korsaren (Austria); Old Ironsides (Spain); Schrecken der Meere (Austria); Sons of the Sea (UK); Tan i epi tas (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title); Trípoli (Spain)

Filming Locations: Santa Catalina Island, Channel Islands, California, USA

Production Co: Paramount Pictures

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Sea | Epic

Taglines

WHAT A YARN! (original print ad - all caps)

A farmer lad shipped to sea for adventure -- and finds it -- and romance, too! On the blood-stained decks of Old Ironsides!

Two seafaring roughnecks, always ready for a fight! They find a mutual friend in "Loud Lucy," that six-pound gun on the quarterdeck!

PRISONERS---held for ransom!---lovers at the mercy of Barbary pirates! Captives on an American vessel, with the frowning guns of Tripoli threatening the outlet to the sea and freedom! Then came ---- "OLD IRONSIDES"

Genres: Drama | History

Early in the 19th century, the USS Constitution is launched as part of an effort to stop piracy in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, a young man determined to go to sea is befriended by the bos'n of the merchant ship Esther, and he joins her crew. When the Esther reaches the Mediterranean, she too, along with the Constitution, becomes involved in the battle against the pirates.

With plenty of action, an interesting story, and a cast headed by Wallace Beery and George Bancroft, this works well as an adventure movie. It adds good shipboard atmosphere, and it also includes the re-enactment of some of the history that is used as background to the story. Although the historical setting is stylized to some degree, it seems to give a pretty good feel for what it was like in the days when ships from the young USA did battle with the coastal pirates of the Mediterranean.

Beery and Bancroft work quite well together, and they are entertaining, too. Beery's boisterous style can work particularly well in silent movies, since the personality of a character is more prominent than the dialogue. Charles Farrell, as the young man who sails with Beery and Bancroft, is usually rather bland, but then again his innocent, reserved character serves as a contrast to the other two. Esther Ralston is an appealing heroine, and a few of the other characters also get some good moments.

The story is interesting, with most of it following characters on "Old Ironsides" and other ships as they sail, maneuver, and battle. The shipboard atmosphere is convincing, showing the crews both in tense times and in lighter moments. It's enjoyable to see the recreation of the old sailing ships and the ways they worked. Between the details of the ships, and the interesting crew members, there are times when you almost feel as if you're aboard with them.

"Old Ironsides" is one of the many silent movies that deserve to be better known and remembered. It's worthwhile both for the story and for its recreation of the age of the great sailing ships.

Trivia: This was the first film to be shown using the Magnascope system.

A real ship (the S. N. Castle, built in 1886) was burned and sunk for the movie.

Connections

Referenced in Hollywood's Magical Island: Catalina (2003) - poster shown.

Featured in Hollywood (1980) (TV Mini-Series)

Spoofed in Old Tin Sides (1927) (Short), Young Ironsides (1932) (Short)

PS= This is an excerpt of a battle scene of the film. 

Should Men Walk Home? - 1927

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Leo McCarey

Writers: Albert Austin, Alfred J. Goulding (screenplay), H.M. Walker (titles)

Stars: Mabel Normand, Oliver Hardy and Creighton Hale

Release Date: 30 January 1927 (USA)

Production Co: Hal Roach Studios

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Comedy | Short

Mabel Normand, one of the silent screen's greatest comediennes, made her last films for producer Hal Roach in the late 1920s. By the time she arrived at the Roach lot Mabel's reputation and career had been damaged by two major scandals and a lot of whispered innuendo. She had a substance abuse problem and her health was poor. It would seem that she was not in the best position to create great comedy, and yet, despite the odds, she nonetheless managed to rise to the occasion and produce some surprisingly enjoyable work. Mabel's debut for Roach, RAGGEDY ROSE, is entertaining but far more sentimental than anything she did back in Keystone days. There Mabel was cast as a Cinderella type, an exploited slavey who toils in a sweat-shop. It's safe to assume that this approach was the studio's strategy to counter their new star's negative personal publicity by working up audience sympathy for her. Mabel's next short THE NICKEL-HOPPER was funnier, though the leading lady was once again cast sympathetically as an under-appreciated working stiff who supports her family. But SHOULD MEN WALK HOME? marked a new approach entirely: here there's no effort to tug at our heartstrings: this is an unapologetic, freewheeling romp with lots of great gags, a strong supporting cast and a steady procession of comic set-pieces.

Mabel plays an out-and-out crook, a "Girl Bandit," no less, who might remind some viewers of Miriam Hopkins' character in TROUBLE IN PARADISE. And like Hopkins she quickly hooks up with a male partner in crime, in this case a Gentleman Crook played by perpetually grinning Creighton Hale. Mabel seems a little livelier in this film than in some of her other late works. In the very first scene we find her hitch-hiking, and she's forced to make a mad dash for cover when Hale's car nearly hits her. (The scene was under-cranked but she still looks pretty nimble.) Soon they team up and crash a swanky party in a mansion to steal a jewel from the host's safe. The host has hired a dim-witted private detective to guard the goods, a nice juicy role for character actor Eugene Palette. The detective is aware almost immediately that these two are up to no good, but he doesn't eject them . . . because then we wouldn't have much of a movie, would we? Instead he tries to out-wit them, and when they succeed in getting the goods from the safe the game is on as the crooks struggle to hide the jewel, find it again, and elude the cop.

One of the comic high-points involves an elaborate, grotesque indoor fountain decorated with cherubs which bear a striking resemblance to Creighton Hale. When he dives into the water to recover the jewel there are several amusing underwater shots that suggest the fountain is as deep as an Olympic-sized pool; and when he surfaces it leads to a routine in which Hale must try to fool the cop into thinking that he is one of the cherubs. (Hale's struggle to keep a straight face in this sequence appears to be quite genuine.) The bit was later developed into a more elaborate routine for the Roach Studio's 1928 comedy EARLY TO BED featuring Laurel & Hardy. And speaking of L&H, Oliver Hardy makes a brief but memorable appearance in this film as a party guest who repeatedly attempts to get a glass of punch, only to be thwarted by Mabel, Hale, and finally by himself. Ollie makes a strong impression but Mabel is very much the star of the show. When we compare this film to her early Keystone work it's apparent that her style became ever more nuanced with time; by this point she could get laughs with just a raised eyebrow or a puckered look of exasperation.

Perhaps if Mabel Normand had kept her health and continued working in the movies this sort of role (i.e. the crook with the heart of gold) might have held possibilities for further development. Sadly, however, this was one of her last films: she died of tuberculosis only three years later at the age of 37. There's no sign of any difficulty or impending trouble behind the scenes as we watch this two-reeler unfold. SHOULD MEN WALK HOME? is one of Mabel's cheeriest and funniest late comedies, with a breezy tone that is poignant only in retrospect.

He Did and He Didn't - 1916

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle

Writer: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (uncredited)

Stars: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Mabel Normand and William Jefferson

Release Date: 30 January 1916 (USA)

Filming Locations: Fort Lee, New Jersey, USA

Production Co: Keystone Film Company

Runtime: 20 min (TCM print) (2005)

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White (tinted)

Genres: Short | Comedy | Drama

A doctor, very much in love with his beautiful wife, comes to suspect that her visiting childhood friend Jack is more than just a friend. Jack's intentions are honorable, but everything he does tends to show his actions in a suspicious light, especially when burglars invade the house and Jack and the wife are caught together in their nightclothes.

Connections

Featured in Hollywood: Single Beds and Double Standards (1980) (TV Episode) Clip with Fatty Arbuckle; Hollywood (1980) (TV Mini-Series)   

Empire State Express - 1902

Country: United States

An early Biograph film of the Empire State Express train on the New York Central & Hudson River line in 1902. To purchase a DVD of this film for personal home use or educational use contact us at questions@archivesfarms.com

To license footage from this film visit: www.travelfilmarchive.com

Early 20th Century Work Scenes

Country: Not available
Silent film clips of work scenes in the early 20th century.