By Jonathan Monovich. An example as to why silent comedy is timeless despite the disbelief of many.” Whereas Lake Michigan Monster (2018) was a whacky take on films like Roger Corman’s Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961) and Curtis Harrington’s Night Tide (1961), Mike Cheslik/Ryland Brickson Cole Tews’ follow-up, Hundreds […]
Laughter over Comedy: from the Introduction to Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria in Early Cinema
By Maggie Hennefeld. Imagine being so hilarious that your jokes, impressions, or other repartee literally caused someone to laugh themselves to death.1 —“Does Your Stand-Up Act Need Death by Laughter Insurance?,” Trusted Choice, insurance web advertisement, August 10, 2019 Imagine being so wild and free that your laughter literally killed […]
The Unexpected Raymond Griffith
By Thomas Gladysz. The two films included in Raymond Griffith: The Silk Hat Comedian serve as an excellent introduction to the comedian’s considerable talents.” Many rediscoveries aren’t. All-too-often, the thing in question – a movie or book or album, an actor, artist or musician, hasn’t been undeservedly forgotten so much […]
Buster Keaton’s Genius, Derailed: The Cameraman (Criterion Collection)
By Thomas Gladysz. Film history is littered with the stories of stars whose careers were derailed by their studios, and themselves. Orson Welles and Erich von Stroheim are two of the best known examples. Each saw their careers go off the tracks for reasons that had as much to do […]
The “Fourth Face” of Silent Comedy – Harry Langdon: King of Silent Comedy by Gabriella Oldham and Mabel Langdon
A Book Review by Louis J. Wasser. Silent film great Harry Langdon died at sixty of a cerebral hemorrhage three years before Christmas day in 1944. He died broke; and Mabel, his third wife, with the help of a friend, managed to secure employment immediately at the Motion Picture Relief […]