Omicron, COVID-19's latest, has postponed screenings, concerts and theater at this time, but, fortunately, online presentations continue. Paramount among said presentations will be this weekend's tribute to British director, screenwriter, actor and silent film comedian Walter Forde by the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.
This dyed-in-the-wool comedy geek has been watching silent movies ever since Robert Youngson comedy compilations were shown on TV in the 1960's and remains quite familiar with the films of Keystone, Hal Roach Studios, Vitagraph, Christie Comedies and Educational, but (remarkably) has not seen these films before!
Presenter and host Michael Aus, early cinema historian, collector and distant cousin of Texas Guinan, has provided the following five silent comedy rarities for the program: Walter Finds A Father (1921, Zodiac), Footing The Bill (1922, British Comedies), Walter The Prodigal (1926, British Super Comedies), Walter's Paying Policy (1926, British Super Comedies) and Walter the Sleuth (1926, British Super Comedies).
Mr. Aus elaborates: Walter Forde is best remembered as a British Director from the 1930's and 40's, but during the silent era he wrote, directed, and starred in a series of slapstick comedies. A number of his silent comedies were issued in Britain by Pathe on 9.5mm film. Several of these have been scanned from my personal film collection and are presented here for your enjoyment.
Forde plays a goofy and somewhat bumbling but likable character, neither a stoic a la Keaton nor a grotesque cartoony clown along the lines of Harry Watson, Jr. a.k.a. Musty Suffer, the Mack Sennett comedy stars not named Mabel Normand and Vitagraph's wacky king of prop comedy, Larry Semon. A few "Walter" comedies, in addition to those Michael Aus will present on January 22, are up on YouTube.
The son of musical hall star Tom Seymour, Walter Forde at the beginning of his movie career (as Ernst Lubitsch did) starred in his own series of comedy short subjects before turning to directing a wide range of genres in feature films. Forde and his father collaborated on the first series of 2-reelers in 1921-1922, with Tom directing Walter's Trying Frolic, Walter Wants Work, Walter Wins A Wager and Walter Makes A Movie.
It's an eye-opener to see Forde's work, both as silent era star and sound era director. The following, Walter Wants Work, recalls the opening sequences of You're Darn Tootin', the Laurel & Hardy classic produced six years later. Maybe Stan saw it!
This writer is surprised by the extent to which he is unfamiliar with Great Britain's silent movie clowns, led by Forde and Betty "Squibs" Balfour. Will need to watch all five Walter Forde comedies Mr. Aus is presenting to elaborate further!
Reflecting upon the legends who left Great Britain for America - Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel and Lupino Lane - it rarely has dawned upon this film buff that there were also excellent comics who stayed in England and starred in slapstick comedies there (note: the acrobatic Lane, as headliner of stage and screen, did both).
As a comedy feature director, Forde helmed a World War II-themed vehicle for the rowdy vaudeville and music hall comedy troupe The Crazy Gang, a version of Charley's Aunt starring Arthur Askey, and several films featuring goofball supporting players Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt, the perennial numbskull stooges from the films of Will Hay. And, speaking of the imperious schoolmaster of 1930's English comedy features, Walter Forde's last onscreen last appearance was with Will Hay in Go to Blazes, a British Ministry of Information short subject about incendiary bombs produced in 1942.
The IMDB entry on Walter Forde by frankfob2@yahoo.com adds:
Born in Bradford,Yorkshire, he was the son of repertory actors and showed no inclination for acting but became a comedian on the music hall.
Attracted to films in 1919 he made a short film for Zodiac Films followed by a series of six 2 reel comedies for Windsor Studios in Catford in 1921. There he developed a slapstick type character called Walter whose trademark were Oxford bags (trousers) and a straw hat. Walter's Wining Ways (1921) was considered the best of these but it wasn't until later years that his comedy talent was recognised.
He went to America between 1923 and 1925 making film comedies for Universal but soon tired of American methods and returned to England where he made more 2 reelers and two feature films ~Wait and See and What Next both with Mabel Poulton with scripts written by himself and which he also directed.
When talkies arrived he became exclusively a director making some 30 films the last being Cardboard Cavalier starring comedian Sid Field. In 1947 he directed what many considered to be his finest film, Master of Bankdam shot on location at Marsden near Huddersfield and starring Tom Walls, Jimmy Handley, David Tomlinson, Stephen Murray and Dennis Price.
For more on Walter Forde’s work in front of and behind the cameras, read the British Film Institute bio, three articles penned by Matthew Ross of The Lost Laugh, including a career overview, an article about Go To Blazes, the Will Hay - Walter Forde collaboration and The Pioneering British Comedies of Walter Forde (starting at page 12), as well as Walter Forde: The “British Harold Lloyd”, a post by the author of Chain of Fools - Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to YouTube from his Travalanche website.
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