Willful Ambrose (Swain 1915)

I've come to the conclusion that I've never seen anyone in my life quite like Mack Swain. His face was just a weird one- permanently contorted into a kind of teenager's gormless disgusted sneer, like he's just been told by his parents that he's got to be in by one o'clock- no later. But it's that sneer on the body of a big lumbering oaf of a man that is so odd. He's a bully and a slob and I can't think of another comic so firmly rooted in the mid 1910s as Swain. And for that reason he's interesting. And, as I've said before, in small occasional doses I can find him quite watchable.
Ambrose and wife have a falling out after he shoots up her beer stein. He takes his child-woman daughter out with him to get a replacement- they run into trouble with another couple in the park intent on acquiring a beer stein of their own. I think you can tell that I don't really know what a beer stein is.
So, help me out, I'm struggling: the sexy dark-haired girl in the park- is that Mae Busch? Or is that Minta Durfee? I'm sure I'm going to look back at myself in a few months time and shake my head in despair at my ignorance- I liked her, I thought she was attractive and very modern looking, but I only know Mae Busch from her Laurel and Hardy stuff a decade and a half later, and all I know about Minta Durfee is that she was Mrs Arbuckle. IMDB tells me the girl in the park is one of them, but such is my horrendous ignorance, I don't know which one. Can you imagine the difficulty of this situation for me? Especially when some of my comments about Mae Busch before have been less than flattering.
No-one will find 'Willful Ambrose' particularly funny of course, but I think a pleasant feeling of bafflement and bemusement is not unwelcome on occasions, and you certainly get that with the Swain Keystones. And damn it I enjoyed this. I found some of the stuff with the backwards daughter just... weird, but hey, weird's good too.

Mabel And Fatty's Married Life (Normand / Arbuckle 1915)

There's not much going on here, not a huge number of laughs to be had, yet its got a nice feel to it and Fatty and Mabel are always lovely to watch together. There's something easy-going and spontaneous about them, especially their scenes together where they seem so relaxed and care-free. This is very rare for films of this vintage, to my eyes at least. Having two actors appear so natural and at home on the screen makes the film enjoyable even when the material may be a little lacklustre.
The film is an anecdote really, a throwaway shaggy dog story. Cursed by an organ grinder in the park, Mabel finds herself terrified of strange movements around the house while her husband's away. It turns out to be the organ grinder's monkey playing peek-a-boo around her curtains. Damn I've spoilt the twist for you. This one is very much about Mabel, and she oozes class with those heavy eyelids of hers, dishevelled hair and pretty but slightly geeky face. Both of these comedians could have made it big in films at any time I think- their appeal is timeless and that's why it's a shame that the films themselves can appear quite dated. I can't imagine sitting down and watching one of these Keystone films with my 7 year old daughter- wind forward to the early twenties though and the films become so much more approachable for modern audiences.
The Keystone cops help to wrap things up, but they are going through the motions rather.
Lovely giggle at the end from Fatty as his Mabel recounts her experiences.

Ambrose's Fury (Swain 1915)

The prime concern of men in the first couple of decades in the last century was getting one over on their women. The documentary evidence for this is undeniable. Swain's on great form here- a much put-upon and bullied husband, he escapes for a day at the beach with the girl next door. It's like a one-reel Carry On film.
There's a- comparatively- huge cast to keep an eye on here, which can always be a bit bewildering when they're mostly new faces to you, and in all honesty I didn't have a clue what was going on after about the six minute mark. The whole thing turns into a farce with people swapping clothes and hiding under beds and running on and off screen. It would all be guesswork really if I tried to convey what was going on.
I like Mack Swain a lot, though there's always the sneaking suspicion that he feels he's slumming it a little, that this is all a bit beneath him. Well to be honest he'd be right here, but his expressions and general demeanour make him very watchable.
Conklin's part is small. As it were. And the film itself- I suspect I won't remember a single frame of it in a few weeks time.

Ambrose's Lofty Perch (Swain 1915)

Well now this is all very interesting. A kind of fantasy piece with Swain playing his usual role but transported to a land of kings and outlaws. Is it a fantasy or a medieval period piece? Or a melodramatic pastiche? In all honesty you won't care: it is dire.
Very, very sloppily put together, even by the standard of these things- pretty much the whole of the first four of five minutes is filmed from a single, awkward camera angle, and the actors- dancing girls mostly (and one thing in the film's favour is the surplus of cavorting females)- are herded in front of it and then led off again. Now if the material was ok this wouldn't matter but... it's not. The odd thing is that there aren't really any attempts at laughs. Ambrose has an arrow shot at his bottom. Seriously, that's it. That's your gag quota. Oh ok, there's some comedy stuff with a bomb. But whatever amusement you are going to find here will come from Swain's business, his expressions, but there's nothing in the material at all, nothing.
Swain is a king who wants a maiden to become his wife. The maiden's admiring fellah (who seems to be Robin Hood) comes along to rescue her. They had some costumes left over from another production you know, there's no other reason for any of this.
Really, really bad, but I feel it's going to haunt me like a dream.

Fatty's Spooning Days (Mabel, Fatty and the Law) (Arbuckle / Normand 1915)

Spooning, I'm assuming, is an Americanism, and presumably an Americanism anachronism, for any kind of flirting or courting behaviour? The great, silly premise for this one-reeler is that absolutely anything of this nature is forbidden in a big, public (but suspiciously empty) park. Fatty and Harry Gribbon and their respective wives end up in this big, public park, not only spooning like there's no tomorrow, but also spooning with each other's partners. Spooning- I like this term, I'm going to be using it more often.
All four of them end up in the police station, having to pay hefty fines. That's your entire plot, to be frank, save for a bit of nonsense with a couple of maids early on. The idea of the police, in great numbers, loitering around the park just waiting to pounce on devious spooners is such a lovely one- it's dumb and cheeky, but it knows it's dumb and cheeky and is so brazen about it you just don't care.
Harry Gribbon I don't think I've seen before- he's very tall and slightly rubbery faced and faux-elegant, and he seems of a different time altogether, as if he's just been plonked down in the middle of 'Fatty's Spooning Days' from his safe house in the 40s, the 60s, the 90s even. I like him, he's got a certain something. Mabel has looked better than she does here, I have to say. She's a little dowdy, a little plain- maybe it's the outfit. There's some great pantomime between her and Gribbon though, and the four leading players- with the Keystone cops supporting them in a relatively subdued and subtle manner- make this very enjoyable. You're not going to fall out of your chair, but neither will you have the slightest inclination to turn away from the screen of your choosing.

Ambrose's Nasty Temper (Swain 1915)

Quite liking Mack Swain- he's an overgrown bear of a man, but also an ordinary joe wih a put-upon kind of face. Ultimately he's a grotesque and you can't quite understand how his career ever took off, while being quite pleased it did. No-one else in this quirky short is particularly distinguished, though I guess the harsh 'mother' fulflls her job description successfully.
Ambrose is fired from some sweatshop kind of place after flirting with the boss's daughter and becoming physically entangled with his disagreeable wife- outraged he hires a couple of first-rate toughs to get his revenge and wreak some vengeance. And here we're on dodgy ground- there's something seedy about this revenge episode, especially as it's the innocent daughter who ends up suggestively tied and mannacled and then left to drown. But this is a good mix of low farce and honest to goodness Perils of Pauline stuff as Ambrose rescue the pretty girl from drowning. Very enjoyable if low on humour.

When Ambrose Dared The Walrus (Mack Swain / Chester Conklin 1915)

I couldn't keep my eyes off the tight acrobat's costume Vivian Edwards was wearing- seriously, this is unexpectedly risqué, and is to be counted in the film's credit column.
Swain is Ambrose, a big man with a wee stuck-on moustache, Conklin is the Walrus, a skinny chap with a big stuck-on moustache. Such is my daisy-like freshness in this field, I don't think I've seen either of them before. Hopefully I'll look back on that statement with incredulity over the next few months as I discover the high and lows of their respective filmographies. Neither of them seem exactly hilarious individually, but together on screen they are watchable- the last few minutes of the film have a particular resonance as they engage in a bittersweet sort of fight, the Walrus' hotel burning down behind them.
The DVD I've got of this is very dark and the intertitles at times are unreadable- this doesn't help an already confusing film become more coherent. At no times is 'When Ambrose Dared The Walrus' a drag though- once the story settles down and you grab the gist of what's happening, the time passes quickly, and if there are no moments of outright hilarity here, there are eyecatching ideas. As it were.
The Walrus runs a hotel, Ambrose and his perky acrobatic assstant are paying guests. The narrative concerns a fire insurance on the property, and the last chunk of the film is taken up with the Walrus trying to make his last payment before the hotel burns down. They certainly did things differently back then, especially at Keystone- the pace is remarkable, bewilderingly so watching now when you're left floundering trying to work out who is who, and who the girls are, and what their relationships are etc. Best not to worry. It really doesn't drag at all, and I'd be happy to watch the two of them in another film. I get the feeling that the more you see of them, the more appealing they are going to be. Especially if Vivian Edwards is in there somewhere as well.

Mabel's Wilful Way (Normand / Arbuckle 1915)

This is a joy, especially coming on the back of 'That Little Band Of Gold' which was pleasant enough without ever coming close to knocking anything out of the park. They cram so much into ten minutes here! Now admittedly some of this is stuff you find yourself watching with your jaw slung low on the floor, but we are going to have to make some cultural allowances I think if we are intent on furthering this relationship...
Now the venerable IMDB is telling me that Al St John is playing 'vendor' here and Edgar Kennedy 'Fatty's pal' but even my slim knowledge of silent comedies is enough for me to stand here and bravely tell you that Al St John is Fatty's partner here. Fatty and Al then have a day's entertainment at the amusement park with straggly haired Mabel and her straight-laced folks. Bored at afternoon tea, Mabel wanders off from her guardians and encounters the rival lovers who proceed to battle each other- and anyone else who crosses their paths- for the girl's affections. Mabel ends up with a smacked bottom from her parents. This is far from being the oddest or most noteworthy moment in the film however.
You get, for yer money, an ice-cream eating bear, a horrendously bullied black chap, a practically psychotic cop, and an ingenious reversed-film fairground ride. I think more than anything else though you get a feeling of innocence (squirm inducing racism aside- though could we argue that the film-makers are only capturing what presumably was an example of a genuine fairground attraction? no, probably not...) and a feeling that this is young, brave, fearless America and anything's possible. The whole thing is lovely- fresh and spontaneous, just a good old-fashioned day at the fair turned into a single reel of gold.

That Little Band Of Gold (Arbuckle / Normand 1915)

Arbuckle- how do we refer to him these days? Bear with me, my knowledge in these matters still aint great. Roscoe or Fatty- which is it to be? My heart says Roscoe, but damnit all he made his money as Fatty and he never seemed to have a problem with it (correct me, please correct me, if I'm wrong...) So Fatty, for now, it is. The only films of his I'd seen before this one were a batch of the Keaton shorts, and this I don't think is quite in that class. But that's ok, that's no great shame, I loved those films- 'That Little Band of Gold' doesn't need to be feeling too inadequate. And this is my first glimpse of Mabel Normand (second glimpse shortly to follow (now read on dot dot dot)). And she's eye-catching. She's not exactly forgotten these days, but people, the general public, just know her as a name now don't they? How many people out of a hundred would recognize her picture, let alone be able to name one of her films?
This is a bright two-reeler of romantic entanglements and lazy diversions. Arbuckle (that's Fatty to you, my friend) and Normand are newly married, but he has a wandering eye and enjoys a decadent life, and he soon begins to stray. Ford Sterling is the over-acting friend / rival whose paramour he takes up with. There is a long opera house scene which, despite offering no amusing moments whatsoever, is culturally fascinating- our band of heroes seem to have been plunked down in the middle of a genuine opera audience and so we end up with our own little slice of cinéma vérité. It's fun to watch their get-up and reactions.
Fatty is the antithesis of Chaplin here- was this a standard character for him? Rich and pampered, he lives in a mansion surrounded by servants, and he lives in his own moral vacuum, existing for his own hedonistic pleasures alone. Sure he ends up with Mabel again at the film's conclusion, but how many people are buying that as a long-term commitment? Jeremy Kyle surely beckons a few months down the line. We never learn what it is that allows him to live this extravagant lifestyle either. The film's highlight, probably the only moment (for all Arbuckle and Normand's genuine charisma and chemistry) that you'd want to revisit, is a scene of first-rate clowning with Fatty and his new wife's scandalized mother.