Spring Cleaning in August

I was cleaning out my computer folders and I found film clips, audio clips, screencaps and stills that I thought were interesting.

I don't remember what I had planned to do with these screencaps from Abbott & Costello's The Naughty Nineties (1945).  In the first screencap, Lou looks frightened because he suspects he has been served a hamburger made of cat meat.  His suspicions seem to be confirmed when he sticks a fork into the hamburger and hears the screech of cat (which actually comes from a cat under the table).

 
The next screencap is of Lou with a bear.  What else needs to be said?

I got these photos from a NitrateVille thread on the Murphy bed in film.  The Murphy bed is one of the great props of classic film comedy, which I discuss at length in The Funny Parts.

 

In the following clip, Australian comedian Frank Woodley has an awkward encounter with a funeral urn during a wake.  

When I featured this clip in an earlier post, I failed to remember that a similar routine had been performed by Jerry Lewis in The Patsy (1964).

I posted photos of cutaway sets in a previous post.  I want to expand on that post based on new images that I have obtained. 

Ship Ahoy (1919)

The High Sign (1921)

Footlight Parade (1933)

 

The Ladies Man (1961)

Tout va bien (1972)

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

I wrote in The Funny Parts about the trapdoor chase that originated in the British theater.  Lupino Lane talked about this routine in a 1957 BBC radio interview.

The star trap does look a little scary.
 

All of this cleaning and organizing has exhausted me.  I am going to lie down and take a nap.

Silent Film Comedians in the Trade Magazines

Let's start with one of the first film comedy stars.

Max Linder

Max poses for a portrait.

 A caricature of Max.

Max in dramatic form.

Max greets Charlie Chaplin.

Max with Chaplin again.

Max attends a party with Chaplin.

Billy Dooley

 

Billie Ritchie

The Man of a Thousand Scowls.

 Ritchie in an early "high and dizzy" comedy, The House of Terrible Scandals (1917).

Another still from The House of Terrible Scandals (1917).

Also, I was browsing through folders on my hard drive and I found screen captures of Billie Ritchie from Live Wires and Love Sparks (1916).

 

 

 

 

Clyde Cook

Larry Semon

 

Larry occupies center stage in this caricature of 1920s film stars. 

 

Lloyd Hamilton

Lupino Lane

This is a still from Pirates Beware (1928) that was published in Motion Picture News.

I found other images from Pirates Beware on my hard drive.

 

Find out more about these comedians and others in Eighteen Comedians of Silent Films.