Tidbits of January 2023

Welcome to the New Year!

Where do we start?

Franco and Ciccio perform a number of comic set pieces in Two Public Enemies (1964).  The plot involves a pair of petty criminals on the run from gangsters.  At one point, they pretend to be a doctor and patient while hiding in a hospital.  The sequence ends with the team performing the unconscious man (usually unconscious woman) routine. 

Jean Poiret and Michel Serrault perform the same routine in La tete du client (1965).

The pair run an illegal gambling den in the film.  Here is the film's slapstick climax.

Poiret and Serrault were a popular long-running comedy team in France.  The team made their debut in 1952. 

Serrault and Poiret at the historic La Tour d'Argent restaurant in 1952

The 1956 play "My Baby."

Assassins et voleurs (1956)

La bonne occase (1965)

La tête du client (1965)

 Le grand bidule (1967)

Poiret wrote the 1973 play "La Cage aux Folles" as a vehicle for him and Serrault.  Poiret relinquished his role to Ugo Tognazzi when the play was adapted into a film.   

The partnership endured for decades.  Here, the actors star in Le March (1987).

Champs Élysées (1990)

In Engelein (1914), a young woman pretends to be twelve years old to inherit money from her American uncle.

The dubious camera shot from inside a fireplace in The Shadow of the Cat (1961).

Our Gang's Norman Chaney gets frustrated trying on hats in Bargain Day (1931). 

A dog mommie from Adorable Julia (1962)

A dancer performs hat tricks in Paris.

Jean-Pierre Cassel and François Périer perform a tie routine in Five Day Lover (1961).

A Not So Merry Christmas (2022) transfers the Groundhog Day plot to the Christmas season.  The poster art depicts the film's star, Mauricio Ochmann, hanging from a giant clock much like Harold Lloyd did in Safety Last! (1923).

Francesco De Fraia, Dominic Manfredi and Raphael Ferrante are an Italian comedy trio known as "I Ditelo Voi" (which translates into "I Tell You").  The comedians' latest feature film is a ghost comedy, Tre Uomini e un Fantasma.

Frank McHugh provides his reliable drunk act in State Fair (1945). 

This week, I just completed my book on the history of adultery films.  Cheating causes a great deal of drama, as we can see in this scene from A Faithful Man (2018).

In future, I want to put more content on YouTube.  My biggest obstacle is my dislike of my voice.  I have considered turning my articles into videos using a virtual host.

I hope that you get through your day with a few laughs and very little crying.