Musings on Silent Films

[pbma]

Silent films were considered commercially worthless once sound came in (Chaplin and a few others being the exception), and nitrate prints disintegrated quickly (another reason why so few are left, and why many 1930s sound films are also lost).

Silent westerns in particular were forgotten because they had no commercial viability for being shown on TV once that came in. Also, according to William K. Everson's book "The Western", it was conventional wisdom in 1929 Hollywood that westerns would die off with sound. (The early talkie era would see fewer westerns made than at any time until the late '70s.)
It was the Depression and audiences' desire to escape its horrors that resurrected it.

The comedy stars associated with Hal Roach Studios, like Laurel & Hardy, the Our Gang (Little Rascals) series, and Harold Lloyd (although Lloyd was no longer associated with Roach by the time sound hit) managed to continue making films into the sound era, and sound proved to be a blessing for W.C. Fields - for the first time audiences could hear his wisecracks on film (not just on the vaudeville stage). Harold Lloyd's relative obscurity has to do with him controlling the rights to his feature films (both his later silents and his sound films, the only exception being his final film, the Howard Hughes-produced "Mad Wednesday" from 1946) and so they remained out of circulation for years. As for Buster Keaton, he lived long enough for his older work to finally be recognized while he was still around to enjoy the recognition. Keaton's career was not so much a casualty of sound but of studio politics - he stopped producing his own films and signed a contract with MGM which saw him as "Groucho Marx and Al Jolson in one man" and put him in some very cheesy early talkies which stiffed. Keaton's own marital difficulties and alcoholism didn't help. BTW, I have seen some of Keaton's talkie shorts from the '30s and '40s and those are unfairly neglected. Read a bio of his life or see the documentary Kevin Brownlow did about him - fascinating stuff.

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's real demon was mostly severe alcoholism. However, William Randolph Hearst exaggerated the extent of Fatty's alcoholism and "perversions" in our history, and in a timeline in which he isn't on Hearst's side, Hearst would smear him in a similar fashion if he runs for political office.

It's hard to do a what-if in which Fatty never goes to the St. Francis, as he probably wouldn't be remembered to the extent that he is if not for the scandal. He'd be just another silent comic/vaudevillian popular in his day who got forgotten with time like Harry Langdon or Joe Penner.

Admittedly, I have only seen ONE film with Arbuckle ("Coney Island", a comedy short in which Fatty was paired with Buster Keaton - probably because my interest in Keaton exceeds my interest in Arbuckle), but that's probably more than most people my age.

[Gene Zonarich]

I'm hardly an expert on silent comedy, but you need to see a little more Arbuckle. Try The Forgotten Films of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, a wonderful 4 disc set produced in 2005 by Paul Gierucki, now available again at Amazon for, I believe, only 19.95 (I paid $40+ at Best Buy in 2005). It will give you a better perspective on the man.

[silentmovies742]

You mention your age, pbma, do you mind me asking how old you are?

[pbma]

1990s baby.
Hope my twenties will be better than my teens.

[silentmovies742]

1990s baby.
Hope my twenties will be better than my teens.

It's good to have some young blood on here.

[pbma]

Thanks.
The Little Rascals movie gave me my first interest in classic films and shorts - wish i could have met the real Darla Hood.

[silentmovies742]

rather than going out and spending money straight away as you work out what your tastes are, try to grab some of the films on youtube (they might not be there legally, but that's not your fault!), see what ones you like and THEN start spending that hard-earned cash

[silentfilm]

Or rent the DVDs or BluRays from Netflix.

[silentmovies742]

Or rent the DVDs or BluRays from Netflix.

Yes, that too. We don't really have netflix in the UK - or the choice of silent releases even if we did!

[Roseha]

You can also rent silent DVDs from Classic Flix or see a whole bunch of silents on Fandor (a Netflix alternative) for about $10 a month.

[Changsham]

Good timing pmba, you have come along when silents are more acccessable than for the past 70 years. So much more when you get in deeper and past the usual suspects. Going by your avatar I would recommend Phyliss Haver films like CHICAGO and BATTLE OF THE SEXES for starters.