The Surreal Life: Dallying with the Absurd
With piano accompaniment by Ben Model
Friday, October 8, 2010, 8:00 p.m.
Theater 1 (The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1), T1
Includes the following films:
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Some Hero
1916. USA. Directed by Billy Dunn. An Eagle Film Company/Tweedledum Comedies production. With Manuel Fernandez Perez (aka Marcel Fabre), Babette Fabre (aka Nilde Barrachi). When Tweedledum’s girl is kidnapped by bad men, he springs into action. Silent. 11 min.
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A Schoolhouse Scandal
1919. USA. Directed by Eddie Cline. A Fox Film Corp./Sunshine Comedies production. With Slim Summerville, Ethel Teare, Tom Kennedy, Polly Moran, Harry Booker, Jack Cooper, James Donnelly, Francis Carpenter. A Surrealistic stew of airplanes, tornadoes, trick mirrors, and underwater car repair. Footage was later recycled for the studios’ 1920 release Hold Me Tight. Silent. 15 min.
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Kiss Me Quick (Don’t Tickle)
1920. USA. Directed by John G. Blystone. A Fox Sunshine Comedy. With Clyde Cook, Blanche Payson, Bobby Dunn, Frank Alexander. Clyde is in hot water with his Amazon wife and her tough sailor brother, culminating in a wrestling match and escape by airplane. Silent. 17 min.
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All Wet
1922. USA. Directed by Al St. John. A Fox Film Corp./Al St. John Comedies production. With St. John, Otto Fries, Ford West, Sy Jenks, Tiny Ward. A newly married couple find that their seaside home is too close to the water in this remake of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s Keystone short Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916). The Surrealistic undersea and rapid-growth visual effects were greeted as a refinement of the slapstick form. This may be one of the first films Arbuckle directed anonymously following his infamous sex scandal. Silent. 20 min.
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Egged On
1926. USA. Directed by Charles Bowers, Harold L. Muller. An R. C. Pictures Corp./Whirlwind Comedies production. With Bowers, Winifred Leighton. An inventor of unbreakable eggs hatches himself a brood of infant Model T automobiles. Silent. 19 min.
In the Film exhibition More Cruel and Unusual Comedy: Social Commentary in the American Slapstick Film, Part 2
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