George Stevens Early Comedy Shorts

[rudyfan]

Okay, bad time to be asking this with Slapsticon a week away. Are any of the early directorial efforts by George Stevens out there and available for home viewing? I'm working on a project and wanted to see some of his early stuff (meaning earlier than Alice Adams).

Any of youse comedy guys got anything to help a slapstick challenged person out?

[missdupont]

Is Laurel and Hardy's Two Tars Stevens?

[azjazzman]

Okay, bad time to be asking this with Slapsticon a week away. Are any of the early directorial efforts by George Stevens out there and available for home viewing? I'm working on a project and wanted to see some of his early stuff (meaning earlier than Alice Adams).

Any of youse comedy guys got anything to help a slapstick challenged person out?

Depends on what you mean by "out there".

Of course, the Boyfriends films have all been shown on TCM, as have the W&W films, "The Nitwits" and "Kentucky Kernels". Also, "Bachelor Bait", "Hollywood Party". "Quiet, Please!", the Edgar Kennedy short is available on a Alpha DVD.

That's off the top of my head, I'm sure there are others.

[azjazzman]

Is Laurel and Hardy's Two Tars Stevens?

As cinematographer only. James Parrott directed. Stevens photographed most of the L&H during this period.

[Bob Birchard]

Okay, bad time to be asking this with Slapsticon a week away. Are any of the early directorial efforts by George Stevens out there and available for home viewing? I'm working on a project and wanted to see some of his early stuff (meaning earlier than Alice Adams).

Any of youse comedy guys got anything to help a slapstick challenged person out?

I've seen two or three of the shorts he directed at Universal in the early 1930s, and I have to say it's a wonder he ever found work in Hollywood after directing them. They are gawdawful--each one worse than the one before.

[gjohnson]

And yet Universal must of been pleased with his work because they give him his first shot at directing features before he moved over to RKO.

Gary J.

[rudyfan]

I've seen two or three of the shorts he directed at Universal in the early 1930s, and I have to say it's a wonder he ever found work in Hollywood after directing them. They are gawdawful--each one worse than the one before.

Really, I find this fascinating. Can you elaborate on the shorts Bob?
I've seen nothing prior to Alice Adams and I'm really quite fond of Stevens and am very curious about the earlier stuff.

[Hal Erickson]

The first of his two Wheeler and Woolsey comedies, KENTUCKY KERNELS, has some funny moments (as long as Spanky McFarland isn't on screen!) but betrays a fault that Stevens manifested in his other comedy films; namely, an inability or unwillingness to wrap the story up when he should and to allow things to run on interminably. Once the feud is resparked in KERNELS, it takes forever for Stevens to bring the film to an end; the gag with the "berry guns" is inspired, but dragged out far too long. We see the same problem in 1938's VIVACIOUS LADY; there is way too much of that closing scene between the two train compartments.
Yes, I know Stevens liked to take his time unfolding his stories. But what works in SHANE and GIANT does not necessarily work when you're doing a comedy (I'm afraid I'm one of those heretics who gets awfully tired awfully quick of Hepburn's shenanigans in the kitchen in WOMAN OF THE YEAR--especially considering all the excellent material that has gone before).

[Bob Birchard]

I've seen two or three of the shorts he directed at Universal in the early 1930s, and I have to say it's a wonder he ever found work in Hollywood after directing them. They are gawdawful--each one worse than the one before.

Really, I find this fascinating. Can you elaborate on the shorts Bob?
I've seen nothing prior to Alice Adams and I'm really quite fond of Stevens and am very curious about the earlier stuff.

The first one I saw, separetly, was "Rock-a-bye Cowboy," which is reasonably okay, and is actually yeat another remake of "Three Godfathers."

I am not certain of the other titles I saw tout ensemble, but I believe they were "Boys Will Be Boys", "The Finishing Touch" (1932), and "Who Me?"--and they were absolute candidate to be converted back to nitrate. The preservation guys from Univeral, Leonard Maltin Dick Bann and I were all in the screening room, and we all concurred.