Thrills and chills mixed with comedy has been a cinematic staple since movies began—even before, as optical toys and magic lantern shows used ghostly specters and apparitions to startle and amuse their audiences. The first person to use macabre imagery for comic effect in a wholesale way with films … [Read more...] about The Gorilla
The Joker
Not all heroes wear capes. But when they do, few perfect the ensemble with a jester’s hat trimmed in jingle bells. Still, Peter Carstairs, the debonair savior of distressed damsels played here by Henry Edwards in a pan-European production from 1928, dresses up as a court fool to carouse in Riviera … [Read more...] about The Joker
Sherlock Jr.
Preceded by ONE WEEK (1920, d. Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline, 23 mins) with Buster Keaton, Sybil Seely, and Joe Roberts When Sherlock Jr. opened, in April 1924, it was only a modest success, and Buster Keaton regarded it as not one of his big pictures. It had no developed storyline and the … [Read more...] about Sherlock Jr.
The Street
In the ongoing cataract of cultural history retrospection, ebbing and waning as it does, the silent German films of the Weimar era have come to be solely represented by the famous screaming-mimis of German Expressionist genre-film hyperbole—the in extremis launch of Caligari, the waxworks and … [Read more...] about The Street
I Was Born, But…
There is, about two-thirds into Yasujiro Ozu’s I Was Born, But…, a cinematic mise-en-abyme: a triangulation of gazes between a father, his two sons, and his boss and coworkers, as they watch a home movie. In the film, a family of four moves to the suburbs as the father, Yoshii (Tatsuo Saito), takes … [Read more...] about I Was Born, But…
Hell’s Heroes
See how far yuh can throw it,” suggests the outlaw leader after mulling over what to do with an abandoned newborn. He and his two surviving accomplices from a bank holdup have stumbled across the infant with its dying mother in a lone covered wagon at a dry waterhole. Hell’s Heroes was far … [Read more...] about Hell’s Heroes
The Laurel and Hardy Show!
The year 1927 was a pivotal time for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Both were seasoned comedy veterans, each with more than a decade’s experience in films and (in Laurel’s case) the vaudeville stage. Both were now ensconced at the celebrated Hal Roach studio. But 1927 was the year they were first … [Read more...] about The Laurel and Hardy Show!
Häxan
In the small Copenhagen suburb of Hellerup, wild rumors circulated among the townspeople. Demonic visitors had arrived and wicked deeds ensued. Ghouls fraternized with terrifying inquisitors of centuries past. Young women drifted about possessed and frantic. And a coterie of windswept witches … [Read more...] about Häxan