Three classic silent
film comedies will be shown with live piano accompaniment at the Wilton
Grange, Wilton, CT on February 17, 2005. Children and adults will enjoy a short
feature and two 12-minute comedies from the golden age of silent cinema.
Harold Lloyd's "Safety Last" known to many from the iconic shot of the actor
suspended many floors above city traffic hanging on by the hands of a clock,
is the feature. Two Charley Chase films, "His Wooden Wedding" and "Limousine
Love" will be screened as well.
Noted silent film
accompanist and film historian John Mucci of Wilton will play a live score.
Refreshments will be served at 7:30 pm, and the films will begin at 8 pm,
with an intermission. Admission is free.
The Wilton Cannon
Grange Hall, at 25 Cannon Road has ample parking available at the Cannondale
Railroad Station. Click here for directions.
ABOUT THE FILMS:
SAFETY LAST (1923)
Harold Lloyd was one of the world's most well-known and
well-beloved comedians in the silent era, having made over 250 films. With
Chaplin and Keaton, his persona of the bespectacled, gentle soul who can be
ingenious and schlemeil-like, was easily identifiable and soon became iconic.
The film Safety Last is his best-known work, and the still of him
suspended many floors above busy city traffic, hanging from a clock by its
minute-hand has become a symbol of the silent film era in general.
But that moment from the film is a brief one: the rest of the
film is equally a masterpiece of comic development, and can still keep an
audience enthralled as much as it did in 1925.
Lloyd not only did his own stunts, but also worked under the
handicap of having part of his right hand blown off from a misfired pyrotechnic
device early in his film career. He wore a prosthetic glove that is almost
undetectable, but it nonetheless must have been very difficult difficult to
perform some of the stunts that you see on screen. Other than some clever camera
angles, there wasn't much trick photography used in those days.
The plot leading up to his daredevil antics is fairly pat but sprayed throughout
with inventive sight gags. Harold plays your simple, hapless, small-town
'everyman' who goes to the BIG city to seek fame and fortune, leaving his true
love (played by Mildred Davis, his real-life wife) at home until he's makes it.
Fresh off the bus, he eventually manages to scrape up a job
as a clerk in a department store, a job that takes him nowhere fast. To save
face, he keeps sending expensive trinkets back home that indicate otherwise.
Convinced that he has indeed made it, she heads off to the BIG city to join him,
much to his chagrin. Desperate to earn quick cash before she discovers the
truth, he takes his boss up on an offer and works up a publicity ruse to drum up
sales for the store.
The rest is classic Lloyd. Wearing his trademark straw hat and horn-rimmed
glasses, the meek mouse suddenly turns into Mighty Mouse as our boy, through a
series of mishaps, literally moves up in the world, scaling heights even he
never dreamed of!
All's well, of course, that ends well, as we've been saying for centuries. Sure,
we know how things ended back in the good ol' days, but isn't it great to know
that when Harold got the girl, he STAYED with the girl? In real life, Harold and
Mildred remained sweethearts for over 45 years.
Charley Chase
LIMOUSINE LOVE (1928)
Charley Chase was never as big a star as Harold Lloyd,
but he carved out for himself a character that lasted well into the sound era,
working as a second-banana with Laurel and Hardy, among others. (You can see him
to advantage in "Sons of the Desert" playing his trademarked loudmouth buffoon).
In this film, once thought lost, now only partially restored,
he plays a groom on the way to the altar, all decked out in his tuxedo, on his
way to the church to get married.
A woman, trying to dry her dress, drenched by an arrant
vehicle and a puddle, dries off in the back of Chase's car, unbeknownst to
Charley. That's where the fun begins for us, at least. The sequence where all
the groom's friends ride on the car trying to help Charley avoid a clash with
his bride to be is a screen classic.
For aficionados, be prepared for some real heartbreak as a
significant amount of footage seems to deteriorate right before your eyes.
Rescued barely in time, it is a painful reminder of how fragile our film
heritage is.
HIS WOODEN WEDDING (1925)
Again, in this film, Charley is about to get married, and his
best man wants two things: Charley's bride and the heirloom diamond that Charley
has given her as an engagement present. So he writes Charley an anonymous note
that his bride has a wooden leg.
A tacit thank you to a number of web contributors
for content.
Harold Lloyd