Now Playing on Harpodeon

[donnie]

Now playing is a Larry Semon comedy, Bathing Beauties and Big Boobs (1918).

It’s not what it sounds like — it’s using boob in the sense of a foolish, ineffectual person — although the bathing beauties part is exactly what it sounds like.

Well, there's one title that has not aged well. (And neither has the first of the striped sock scenes. ) Thanks for posting—I think this is actually the only thing I've seen Larry Semon in besides the Wizard of Oz.

At about the midpoint, I was kind of confused about the scheme to return the bankroll, as I didn’t realize a bankroll had actually gone missing. Was that just me or was the plot unclear? (Probably the former).

[dustin@harpodeon.com]

The plot is entirely incidental. It’s not weird in Larry Semon films for it to be jettisoned or for main characters to suddenly vanish or be replaced without comment. Larry Semon’s style of humor is a divisive. People seem to either love him or hate him with very little middle ground.

He bucked the general Vitagraph trend of releasing domestic situational comedies, like those characterized by the Sidney Drews or John Bunny and Flora Finch, and went hard in the other direction -- into slapstick comedy more like Keystone was known for. Indeed, he had his own knock-off Keystone Cops with the Big V Riot Squad and this film is in imitation of Mack Sennett’s Bathing Beauties.

[dustin@harpodeon.com]

The Last Cartridge, an Incident of the Sepoy Rebellion in India (1908)

A fictionalized account of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, also called the Indian Insurrection and the First War Indian of Independence. The British retreat inside a fort where their numbers slowly dwindle. When just Charles Kent and his daughter Florence Turner are left, he saves the last cartridge for her lest the Sepoys capture her. From a paper print.

[donnie]

Fascinating! It's so interesting to see how much early film acting and cinematography was bound to stage traditions, and this is a splendid example of it. Some of the most extravagantly stagey acting I've seen.

And it's interesting that some of the sets are claustrophobically small, considering the action that is taking place. Especially that first scene, involving dining and dancing, a ruined romance, an invasion and battle, and all taking place in about ten square feet. Everything seems compressed here, including the plot.

The titles are beautiful, as is the score. (Too bad the Triumphal March didn't get much time.) Thanks for posting!

[dustin@harpodeon.com]

It is pretty barren. There are about fifteen extras on either side of the conflict and there’s precisely one horse. I will say, though, the cinematography is advanced for 1908, with able use of cross-cutting between the mutineers outside of the fort and the British inside.

[dustin@harpodeon.com]

The Soilers (Hal Roach, 1923)

Known for the gay cowboy (Glenn Tryon) who falls in love with Bob Cannister (Stan Laurel). He’s a parody of the Cherry Malotte character in Rex Beach’s novel The Spoilers.

This is the French one-reel edit, Le Héros de l'Alaska, which is a great deal less common than the half-reel edit (itself sourced from the Pathé Baby abridgment). The original two-reel film does exist but I don’t yet have a copy of it. The Library of Congress’s print isn’t digitized and digitizing films is expensive. I’ll get it eventually.

[donnie]

I couldn't make much sense of the plot of this one, or what there was of it. I wonder if it makes more sense in the full version.

I only seen two of Stan Laurel's early efforts (the other being Oranges and Lemons), and haven't been too impressed with either. Such a contrast to his later unforgettable character.

Thanks for posting!

[dustin@harpodeon.com]

Ehh, the plot of The Spoilers isn’t that much more complex than this short parody. McNamara exploits the corrupt local politicians to steal Glenister’s claim and Glenister resolves it by beating McNamara to within hair’s breadth of death in an absurdly violent fight that lasts a whole chapter. Stripped of the subplots, that’s what the book is about.

[dustin@harpodeon.com]

Been a while since I posted, but up now is an abridgment of Satan Town (1926), a Harry Carey vehicle not known to exist in its original feature-length form.

[donnie]

That was most interesting! Thanks for posting. I liked both Carey and Kathleen Collins in this.

It's pretty obvious that it's heavily truncated, especially toward the end. But if it was six reels, it's amazing that they were able to cut it down to something comprehensible in ten minutes.