After almost 19 years writing Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, this is post #1400.
While, admittedly and embarrassingly, I deleted at least two or three posts due to laughably egregious errors, shall proclaim this Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog entry to officially be the 14 hundredth! Yay!
How does the blogmeister feel about writing post #1400? Feel like Virginia O'Brien, the deadpan diva, in this great song from PANAMA HATTIE, which should begin with her slapping overbearing Red Skelton across his overacting kisser (and, bear in mind, we like him as Red Skeleton in the Tex Avery MGM cartoon WHO KILLED WHO).
So this blog shall celebrate post #1400 without bubbly (thanks T2 diabetes, ya rat bastard). We'll start with some supercharged improvisational proto-metal British rock from Deep Purple, live in Belgium. Yes, indeedy, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice had chops.
How will we celebrate the silver screen stuff we love, while also kicking ourselves for missing the 80th anniversary of the execution of Benito Mussolini and Clara Petacci on April 28. With a respectful nod to the enduring classic movie genre that broke big time during World War II, film noir.
The Burt Lancaster starring vehicle Brute Force is an inspired cross between Jimmy Cagney style caper thriller and film noir.
Nearly eight decades after noir's heydey, celluloid heroes Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame still bring the heat.
Don't recall any other noirs featuring larger-than-life Charles Laughton (except the harrowing tale of evil he directed, Night Of The Hunter), but the following classic, THE BIG CLOCK, is a chiaroscuro dilly and post 1400 worthy.
Prominent in the "silver screen stuff we love" category is silent era comedy. Here are several all-time favorites from all-time favorite silent movie comedians, starting with Buster Keaton in ONE WEEK.
Next up: vintage musical short subjects from way back when Sammy Davis, Jr. thrilled vaudeville as a ridiculously talented child entertainer and Frank Sinatra was studying the phrasing of Bing Crosby and Russ Colombo. Especially love those pre-Code musical short subjects, especially Vitaphone's Melody Masters series.
Here, in the 1932 Vitaphone musical classic, The Yacht Party, the mindblowingly limber Melissa Mason does her best terpsichorean triple-jointed impersonation of the even more mindblowingly limber and quadruple-jointed comedienne Charlotte Greenwood. All we can say is "go, Melissa, go!"
The following Vitaphone 1-reelers present absolutely amazing and talent-filled mini musicals, the glaring preponderance of 1920's and early 1930's style racial stereotype bits notwithstanding. That's The Spirit stars the comedy team of Flournoy Miller & Mantan Moreland (yes, that guy, Sidney Toler's sidekick in Charlie Chan flicks), The Washboard Serenaders, powerhouse singer/tapdancer/actress Cora La Redd and Noble Sissle's red-hot swing band.
Alas, as there was still a color line, big time, in 1932, Cora La Redd, who would have mopped up the floor with all tapdancers not named Eleanor Powell and given the Sophie Tuckers of the world a run for their money, did not subsequently get to appear, even briefly, in RKO, Paramount and MGM musicals.
Backing actress of stage and screen, vocalist and dancer Nina Mae McKinney, star of King Vidor's Hallelujah, Eubie Blake's band headlined the following 1932 Vitaphone short. The super-talented kids whose exceptional dancing brings this Vitaphone Melody Master to a rousing finish:
The Nicholas Brothers.
Another of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog's all-time favorite films is Smash Your Baggage (1932), starring Small's Paradise Entertainers. Jazz legend Roy Eldridge is in the band!
Lupe's co-star in this terrific comedy is the fast talking EPITOME of pre-Code. . . the one, the only Lee Tracy.
Also on hand: the familiar croaking voice of Eugene Palette.
Of course, the pre-Code flick we REALLY want to see is Convention City (1933).
The phrase pre-Code and the names of splendid actresses, Aline MacMahon and Ann Dvorak mean the gang here is watching this movie! And it features screen immortal Lyle Talbot, two decades before Plan 9 From Outer Space, as an oily rat bastard!
Of course, we also love pre-Code cartoons, even those Ub Iwerks Studio productions starring Willie Whopper!
Watching Iwerks Studio cartoons, must extend kudos, bravos and huzzahs to animators Grim Natwick, Shamus Culhane, Berny Wolf and music director Carl Stalling.
Also love the very pre-Code version of Tom & Jerry by New York's Van Beuren Studio.
Any Fleischer Talkartoon featuring Betty Boop, Koko and Bimbo is sure to be a winner.
Always liked this 1932 Screen Song featuring Betty Boop as a mermaid and using a certain Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby ditty from the Marx Brothers opus Horse Feathers.
What's the best way to finish post #1400? Warner Brothers cartoons!
Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog extends multiple hat tips to the directors of these cartoons, Bob Clampett and Frank "Tish Tash" Tashlin. Love those guys!
It's the sincere hope of the gang here that we shall be lucky enough to still be alive, kicking (even slowly) and blogging for post #1500 down the road.
For classic movie buffs and comedy geeks, especially silent era comedy geeks, the Christmas season invariably means mandatory viewing of classics by Hal Roach Studios (a.k.a. The Lot of Fun).
One of my greatest experiences watching movies was my first viewing, in an auditorium packed with cub scouts and their dads, all ROFL, of Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, starring as incredibly inept Christmas tree salesmen in BIG BUSINESS (1929).
Starring the boys and nemesis Jimmie Finlayson, BIG BUSINESS was greeted with uproarious laughter from the scouts and their dads.
Another holiday must-see from Hal Roach Studios is There Ain't No Santa Claus, starring Charley Chase and Noah Young.
Could there be more jokes about ill-fitting Santa suits and ridiculously long beards? No.
Nobody combines the outrageously silly with nuanced character-based comedy quite like Charley.
This reminds the comedy-crazed rapscallions at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog that there is a new Blu-ray release of Charley's very funny silent 2-reelers, some featuring Babe Hardy in the supporting cast.
The press release elaborates: Both Charley Chase and the Hal Roach Studios Golden Era was in the late 1920's, and 1927 was the year Charley Chase was the Lot of Fun's Number One star.
His films from that period, directed by his brother James Parrott and supervised by Leo McCarey, were not only some of his best but were also some of the greatest comedies from the silent era. Most of these classic shorts have never been seen since their original release, and this set combines materials from film archives and private collections from around the world to bring these shorts together for the first time, all with wonderful accompaniment from Dr. Andrew Simpson, commentary tracks by noted Hal Roach Historian Richard M. Roberts, and restoration by the experts at CineMuseum LLC.
Fifteen great comedy shorts like MANY SCRAPPY RETURNS, WHAT WOMEN DID FOR ME, THE WAY OF ALL PANTS, and US, show Charley Chase as a comedy talent at the top of his game, with interesting co-stars like Lupe Velez, Jean Arthur and Eugene Pallette, as well as Hal Roach regulars like Anita Garvin, Charley Hall, Noah Young, and even Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
Special Features include three bonus short subjects and an extensive photo gallery. This set is a must-have for all fans of Charley Chase, Silent Comedy, and the work of the Lot of Fun, from one of the most fun years the Lot ever had.
Preceding this selection of Charley's 20 minute comedy masterpieces on Blu-ray: Laurel & Hardy's incredibly funny silent slapstick fests of 1927-1928.
The latest Flicker Alley release, the 1928 L&H gems, packs quite the classic comedy punch.
This is our last post for 2024. We wish all a Merry Christmas- Happy Hanukkah - Cool Kwanzaa - Felicitous Festivus (retroactively) and shall return on January 3, 2025 with a post about silent screen comedy goddess Marion Davies.
When asked the question who is your favorite comedian and who makes you laugh the hardest the answer, in a tie with Laurel & Hardy, is Charley Chase (1893-1940).
Along with L&H and Our Gang, he starred in very funny short subjects series produced in the 1920's and 1930's by Hal Roach Studios.
Charley, A.K.A. Charles Parrott, was the brother of director/comedian James Parrott and worked steadily in front of and behind the camera, beginning in 1913-1914, at Christie Comedies, Mack Sennett's Keystone, King Bee, Fox and Hal Roach Studios.
Charley was a brilliant comedian who could sing, dance, act, write and direct.
Charley Chase began directing with Sennett in 1915 and largely stayed behind the camera, piloting Snub Pollard's absurdist 2-reelers and contributing (with Robert MacGowan and Tom McNamara) to originating the Our Gang series, until beginning starring in 1-reelers for Hal Roach in 1924.
Charley is best known today for his role as the obnoxious, loudmouthed conventioneer in the 1933 Laurel & Hardy feature SONS OF THE DESERT.
In what unfortunately, with his untimely passing in 1940, ended up being a short career, Chase starred in numerous short subjects, while also directing other comics, from The Three Stooges to Smith & Dale to Lloyd Hamilton to the Hal Roach Studios "female L&H" team of Thelma Todd & Zasu Pitts. He directed comedy short subjects through his late career stint in 1937-1940 at the Columbia Shorts Department.
Chase's silents and early talkies produced by Hal Roach Studios crack me up!
The silent comedies Charley starred in, co-directed and wrote with Leo McCarey in the mid-1920's are certainly among the funniest ever made.
These are the classic comedy films that, no matter how many times I have seen them, get me ROFL!
Chase made a smooth transition to talkies and brought his musical talents and songs to the hilarious 2-reelers.
One of my favorites bits is the "asparagus" routine in YOUNG IRONSIDES (1932), featuring a recalcitrant green vegetable and, as Charley's co-star, the winsome Muriel Evans.
Collectors of classic movies, way back in the pre-VHS, Beta, DVD and Blu-ray days, much enjoyed the 16mm prints of Charley Chase comedies (silents and talkies) available through Blackhawk Films.
Ran 'em over and over and over. The following Chase classic, THE HASTY MARRIAGE (1931), co-stars Laurel & Hardy nemesis Jimmie Finlayson and the Gracie Allen-ish comedienne Gay Seabrook.
Charley Chase's patented comedy of embarrassment - a.k.a. "whatever the worst thing I fear can happen to me is about to happen - and worse than imagined" - translates quite well to talkies.
We thank Blackhawk Films for making these classic 2-reel comedies available on 16mm back in the 1960's and 1970's.
Charley played four roles in the appropriately titled 1934 short subject FOUR PARTS.
Every year on October 20, I make sure to thank Charley for the laughs and watch a few of his films.
I also tip the battered Max Linder top hat to the guy who designed many posters promoting Chase's Hal Roach comedies, the great Al Hirschfeld.
Alas, started this day by accidentally hitting the "delete" button and instantaneously jettisoning this entire post - in the immortal words of motivational speaker Matt Foley, WHOOPS-A-DAISY. Shall now attempt to re-construct the 7-29-2023 post on the fly - and rewrite as we go!
Let's just say that on this day back in 1906, the pride of Lawrence, Kansas, the talented actress Thelma Todd was born.
The vivacious comedienne was also The Pip From Pittsburg!
Her 120+ films included both countless comedies and memorable dramatic parts in the crime thriller Corsair and the first screen adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, starring Ricardo Cortez as a rather randy, always hot-to-trot Sam Spade. Here, Thelma (as "the college widow") attempts to romance Groucho Marx in Horse Feathers.
Whenever the gang here gets down and in the dumps, we watch a comedy film in which one of the supporting players happens to be Thelma Todd!
Was there ANY comedian in the late silents and early talkies who Thelma did not co-star with?
The answer to that question is Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Roscoe Arbuckle, Lupino Lane, W.C. Fields, Lloyd Hamilton and the certifiable Clark & McCullough.
Thelma appeared as a valuable supporting player in films with all the rest of the funmakers, including the aforementioned Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown and the outstanding movie comedy teams Laurel & Hardy and Wheeler & Woolsey.
Knowing comedy talent when he encountered it, producer Hal Roach signed Thelma as a stock company member at The Lot Of Fun in 1929.
She has striking parts in several entries from the Roach Studio's bizarre (but hilarious) 1929 Harry Langdon series, which this writer reviewed here.
Tops in my book - Thelma's films with comedian Charley Chase!
A less prominent but extremely funny Hal Roach short subject featuring Thelma Todd is Love Fever, from The Boy Friends series.
Author, film historian and Hal Roach Studios expert Leonard Maltin elaborates on this lesser known but hilarious Hal Roach comedy.
At the moment, several entries from The Boy Friends series have been posted as a playlist on Archive.org. Perhaps The Boy Friends comedies will eventually find their way onto Blu-ray or DVD. . .
After Thelma and Charley made a wonderful team and worked beautifully together in The Pip From Pittsburg, Looser Than Loose and other short subjects, producer Hal Roach spun Thelma off into her own series. Roach had been experimenting with female comedy teams for awhile, having teamed comediennes Anita Garvin and Marion "Peanuts" Byron in the silent 2-reelers A Pair Of Tights, Feed 'Em And Weep and Going Ga-Ga. Thelma was teamed with character actress and comedienne ZaSu Pitts.
Hal Roach, who wanted to establish a "female Laurel & Hardy" as soon as it was clear that Stan & Babe were an enormous hit, tried a comedy team of Anita Garvin and Marion "Peanuts" Byron in 1928-1929, then, beginning in 1931, produced a series of 17 Thelma & Zasu comedies.
The first Todd-Pitts short subjects were directed by Marshall "Mickey" Neilan, veteran of numerous silent features and short subjects.
Watch the following, On The Loose, all the way through to see one of the funniest cameos in silver screen comedy history!
Here's an excerpt from one the funniest of the Todd-Pitts and Todd-Kelly comedies, The Bargain Of The Century (1933), which was directed by none other than Charley Chase.
Zasu, with numerous and increasing offers to work in feature films, left the series in 1933. She would be succeeded as Thelma's teammate by the very funny and enjoyably rowdy Patsy Kelly. All 21 Todd-Kelly 2-reelers, thankfully, are available on DVD from Classic Flix, the same company which has produced several terrific sets featuring Our Gang a.k.a. Hal Roach's Rascals.
Our favorite from the Todd-Kelly series? Top Flat (1935)!
Wikipedia elaborates:Todd continued her short-subject series through 1935 and was featured in the full-length Laurel and Hardy comedy The Bohemian Girl. It was her last role before her untimely death at age 29. Although she had completed all of her scenes, producer Roach had them re-shot, fearing negative publicity. He deleted all of Todd's dialogue, and limited her appearance to one musical number.
In closing, important acknowledgments for this and many other Lot Of Fun-centric posts go to Leonard Maltin, Sprocket Vault, Classic Flix, Benny Drinnon and the extremely thorough Dave Lord Heath of the Another Nice Mess website - thanks to all of you! In addition, we note that YouTube poster Anthony Scibelli has covered Thelma Todd's movie career and untimely passing as part of his entertaining and informative Unsung Legends Of Comedy series.
