The Motion Pictures

With the publication of the Volume 10 post last week, the Slapstick Encyclopedia project is officially finished! Here’s a wrap-up of everything we’ve covered in the past ten weeks.

The Posts

Volume 1: In the Beginning
Volume 2: Keystone Tonight! Mack Sennett Comedies
Volume 3: Sennett in the Twenties
Volume 4: Funny Girls
Volume 5: Keaton, Arbuckle and St. John
Volume 6: Hal Roach’s All-Star Comedies
Volume 7: Hal Roach – The Lot of Fun
Volume 8: Chaplin and the Music Hall Tradition
Volume 9: The Race is On
Volume 10: The Anarchic Fringe

Full Film List

One of the only things that bugged me about this set when I bought it was that no list of all of the films in each volume was included. So I decided to put one together as I watched. I’ve been tracking the films on Listography in the order that they appear in the set but I’ve decided to post the list here, too, in alphabetical order, for anyone who may be interested in purchasing the set.

1. Alkali Ike’s Auto
2. All Night Long
3. Barney Oldfield’s Race for a Life
4. Be My Wife
5. Big Moments from Little Pictures
6. Boat, The
7. Chasing Choo-Choos
8. Circus Today
9. Cure for Pokeritis, A
10. Danger Ahead
11. Detectress, The
12. Dogs of War
13. Dry and Thirsty
14. Family Life
15. Fatty and Mabel Adrift
16. Fluttering Hearts
17. Fox Trot Finesse
18. Garage, The
19. Get Out and Get Under
20. Grocery Clerk, The
21. Haunted Spooks
22. Hearts and Flowers
23. He’s In Again
24. His Marriage Wow
25. Iron Mule, The
26. It’s a Gift
27. Know Thy Wife
28. Laurel and Hardy Laughtoons
29. Live Wires and Love Sparks
30. Mabel’s Dramatic Career
31. Mighty Like a Moose
32. Movie Star, A
33. Mr. Flip
34. Muddy Romance, A
35. Natural Born Gambler, A
36. Night in the Show, A
37. Now You Tell One
38. Oh, Doctor!
39. One Too Many
40. One Wet Night
41. Only Me
42. Oranges and Lemons
43. Out Bound
44. Pie-Eyed
45. Rare Chaplin Snippet, A
46. Rink, The
47. Rounders, The
48. Rowdy Ann
49. Saturday Afternoon
50. Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies
51. Teddy at the Trottle
52. Three of a Kind
53. Wandering Willies
54. Water Wagons
55. Wrong Mr. Fox, The
56. Yukon Jake

Favorites (Discoveries & re-discoveries)

Films (in order of appearance)

• The Wrong Mr. Fox (1917)
• Be My Wife (1921)
• A Muddy Romance (1913)
• His Marriage Wow (1925)
• Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916)
• The Garage (1920)
• Get Out and Get Under (1920)
• Haunted Spooks (1920)
• It’s a Gift (1923)
• A Rare Chaplin Snippet (1916)
• Danger Ahead (1926)
• Yukon Jake (1924)
• Now You Tell One (1926)

People (alphabetical by first name)

• Andy Clyde
• Ben Turpin
• Charley Chase
• Dorothy Devore
• Harry Langdon
• Mabel Normand
• Madeline Hurlock
• Max Linder
• Peggy Pearce

Reviewin’ the Box

What’s in the box?: Fifty-six silent shorts of the slapstick comedy genre, plus a booklet called “The Whole Custard Pie Catalog” with information about some of the stars featured in these films. The DVDs total up to about 18 hours of programming.

Packaging: The five discs of this set come in a tri-fold “video-book” package. Beautiful sepia images adorn the front and back covers. When you open the first fold, you see the first two discs in their respective DVD slots on the left, with two photos of Chaplin and a quote from him on the right. Open the Chaplin fold and the final three discs and booklet are revealed. Each disc has a film still printed on it. On the whole, the set is very nicely designed and looks great to display on a shelf. 5/5

DVD quality: Some of these films are over 100 years old, so the print quality can be hit-or-miss. All films are of watchable quality, though, despite their distortion. They’re accompanied by crystal-clear, beautifully composed scores. I won’t fault the set too greatly for the quality of some of the prints, because I’m sure in most cases they were the best prints available, and I’m just glad the films are available for viewing in any case. 3.5/5

Special features: The introductions to each film, though presented in a very simple way (text slides), are informative. Three bonus films which were not included in this set’s earlier printings make great additions. (Two of my favorites from the entire set, His Marriage Wow and Haunted Spooks, are bonus films.) The accompanying booklet is nicely done — lots of pictures and interesting tidbits about the filmmakers. An additional documentary feature might have been nice to see, since the curators of the set clearly have the knowledge to put one together. 4/5

Overall score: 4.2/5 – I’m very glad to own this set and would recommend it to any fan of silent films, or anyone wishing to further explore the world of silent, comedic shorts.