Please help ID a silent comedy seen long long ago

Hal Erickson · Post by **Hal Erickson** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:53 pm

When I was about six or seven years old I stumbled upon a TV broadcast of what appeared to be a silent comedy.

Apparently a spoof on melodramas, it showed the heroine either bound to or lying unconscious on a log, rapidly approaching a buzzsaw. The hero, whom a modern-day narrator described as stupid, rushed to the buzzsaw controls, but accidentally pushed the lever to "FULL SPEED" or something like that.

We then cut to a shot of a group of Keystone-style cops who, reacting in horror to some offscreen catastrophe, solemnly doffed their hats out of respect for what I assumed to have been the now-deceased heroine! This was followed by a cut back to the "hero", sheepishly grinning.

I recall at this point that the narrator (was this a live TV show or a "Flicker Flashbacks"-style pastiche? Who knows?) said "Don't worry, folks, they sewed her back together"--whereupon we saw another film with the same heroine.

Even allowing for the wild, anything-goes realm of silent comedy, knocking off the heroine for the sake of a punchline seems a wee bit
extreme. .Naturally, this sort of thing would make quite an impression upon a little kid! I haven't seen the film since that one telecast some 50 years ago, but I've never forgotten it.

Some questions: Am I imagining that I saw this sequence?

Was there really such a comedy in which the heroine met so grisly a fate?

Was the sequence merely re-edited to make it appear that the girl had been sliced in twain?

Was this a dream sequence (a la THE FROZEN NORTH) or a movie-within-a-movie?

Or was the "film" a 1950s re-enactment of a "typical" silent comedy?

If this turns out to be a famous silent-comedy gag, please be kind and don't tell me what a clod I am not to immediately recognize the source. But if anyone can ID this film, please let me know!

Elif · Post by **Elif** » Thu May 07, 2009 1:50 pm

This reminds me of a Larry Semon film [title escapes me now] involving lots of logs and saws. In fact I think after seeing the film itself, I've also seen the Flicker Flashback-type version of this film...
Need to consult my databases...

Post by **silentfilm** » Thu May 07, 2009 2:02 pm

Could this be Larry Semon's The Sawmill with Stan Laurel?

Elif · Post by **Elif** » Thu May 07, 2009 2:30 pm

I think that may be right, but I think you meant Oliver Hardy, and not Stan?

Hal Erickson · Post by **Hal Erickson** » Thu May 07, 2009 2:59 pm

I have a DVD copy of THE SAWMILL, and that's not the one I'm thinking of.

But thanks anyway.

Rodney · Post by **Rodney** » Thu May 07, 2009 4:44 pm

Hal Erickson wrote:I have a DVD copy of THE SAWMILL, and that's not the one I'm thinking of.

But thanks anyway.

Have you checked the Al St. John serial spoof "Curses"? It's been a while since I watched it (it's on the last DVD in the Forgotten Arbuckle set, since it was directed by "William Goodrich"). It does have a gal tied to a lumber-mill log saw with a speed control lever, and it's played for farce.

Hal Erickson · Post by **Hal Erickson** » Fri May 08, 2009 1:11 pm

Sorry, it's not CURSES, either.

Thanks, though.

Chris Snowden · Post by **Chris Snowden** » Fri May 08, 2009 1:21 pm

Hal Erickson wrote:Sorry, it's not CURSES, either.

Thanks, though.

Ben Turpin's The Daredevil (1924)?