Post by mtw12055 on Mar 10, 2016 22:01:12 GMT -5
If anyone is curious, I'll gradually be posting entries from some of the lesser-known Roach series to my channel. I've already gone through all ten "Taxi Boys" shorts, and am in the process of adding Charley Chase, ZaSu Pitts & Thelma Todd, Thelma Todd & Patsy Kelly, Harry Langdon, and the All Star/Musical comedies. I also hope to add a few more RKO-Darmour Mickey McGuires.
Apart from the RKO-Darmour Mickey McGuires, I've seen almost all of the extant shorts from the other series, and I agree that these deserve a proper DVD (If not Blu-ray!) release, especially the Pitts/Todd/Kelly and Charley Chase sound era shorts!
In the meantime, I for one, think it's great that you're making these available for viewing to those who might otherwise not even be aware of the existence of these films!
CHEERS!
I agree, a proper DVD release would be nice. Perhaps combining entries from several of the series into a "Best of Hal Roach" collection would sell. Certainly more so than "The Taxi Boys Collection!"
Charley Chase is an immensely underrated performer (and director) whose work for the studio generally seems to be credited to Mr. Roach. From what I can gather, Charley was one of main people who developed the Roach style - comedy from situations and characters, rather than wall-to-wall gags. I guess you could call him the grandfather of sitcoms. Heck, he even supervised the earliest Our Gangs!
As far as his own comedies go, I can't recommend them enough. The ones for Roach, anyway - I haven't seen his work for other studios yet. "On the Wrong Trek" is available on the Laurel and Hardy Essential Collection, and "Whispering Whoopee" (PD?) was part of the old Michael Agee collection. Agee also had a few out on VHS back in the 80s.
The female Roach teams have their moments. With all due respect to ZaSu Pitts, I prefer the ones with Patsy Kelly ("oh, you wanna make something out of it?!"). Plus, any of the ones with Don Barclay are a riot ("Remind me to ignore you sometime"). "On the Loose" is also on the L&H Essential Collection, and as you mentioned, some of the ones with ZaSu are available in Europe. Agee also had a handful available on VHS in the 80s. "Nobody's Baby," Patsy's feature with Lyda Roberti (one of Thelma's replacements) is available on DVD, as is her solo effort "Kelly the Second."
As I mentioned before, I feel that The Boy Friends had so much potential that was never fully reached. I'm not sure why Leonard Maltin gives the series so much praise. It feels a bit too "average" to me. Great performances from the cast, though. And it gives us a look at George Stevens' earliest work as a director. Agee had a couple of these on VHS in the 80s.
Harry Langdon came to Roach at the wrong time - during the awkward transition to sound films. As a result, I find his Roach films harder to enjoy. Love him in other films, though. Agee had at least one of these available on VHS.
The Taxi Boys started out as a fun tribute to the Mack Sennett style of comedy, with director Del Lord making some fantastic stunt-filled, nearly-silent films with the likes of Billy Bevan, Clyde Cook, and Franklin Pangborn. Budget constraints forced him to rely on the talents of Ben Blue and Billy Gilbert to get laughs. Blue is often criticized for his earlier film work. He seems to be trying a bit too hard to be funny. But he was quite good on his later television work when he toned his shtick down significantly. Gilbert never seemed to figure out which of his many characters he wanted to play. Plus, the two never really played off of each other. From what I understand, Ben Blue insisted that Billy Gilbert merely be his straight man. Billy apparently responded with "every man for himself."
Out of curiosity, I would like to see more of the All Star and Musical shorts. Roach's first All Star talkie "Hurdy Gurdy" (with Max Davidson, Edgar Kennedy, and Thelma Todd) is available on DVD in Europe. The other titles are more elusive. I know Edgar Kennedy's "Dad's Day" is out there, as are the Irvin S Cobbs (one was shown on TCM not too long ago). Of the 1933-34 entries (with Duggie Wakefield, Billy Nelson, Don Barclay, Jack Barty), "Mixed Nuts" is on YouTube.
The only real recurring series from the Musical entries was "The Shmaltz Brothers," who were Billy Gilbert and Billy Bletcher playing Laurel and Hardy with Dutch accents. If you watch the last few Taxi Boys films (which costarred Bletcher), you'll see he and Gilbert already developing the Shmaltz shtick. Gilbert directed the first two entries (the pilot "Keg O My Heart" was reportedly never released. The TCM airing is clearly a reconstructed print using the Beau Hunks soundtrack). Gilbert apparently went over budget, so the third and final entry ("Music in Your Hair") was directed by Charley Chase.
I haven't seen a whole lot of the lesser known silent Roach series, but the few shorts that I really enjoyed were from the sadly short-lived Max Davidson series. Definetly recommend those!
I recently watched Glenn Tryon's feature "The Battling Orioles," mostly for the Our Gang cameo. Trying was a decent enough performer, but it's clear his main job was to be Harald Lloyd's replacement.
Roach's later feature film and Streamliner work is more hit and miss. Plenty of decent ideas and top notch performances to be found (particularly for fans of old character actors). But I tend to chuckle and smile than laugh at those films. The "Topper" trilogy is probably his best remembered feature series. A number of the latter day films are on DVD. Several of the Streamliners are in the public domain. The service comedies with William Tracy and Joe Sawyer have their moments, as do the ones with Sawyer and William Bendix.
Mickey McGuire is more odd than funny. The silents are especially surreal. The various rival Our Gangs is another topic - one that I've been researching off and on for some time, mostly through old film magazines saved by the Internet Archive. Surprisingly, a number of these series got positive reviews from the critics.
Boy, I felt like I just wrote a novel. On my phone, no less.