Customer Reviews

Slapstick Masters

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A funny, first rate collection of silent film comedy shorts.
Silent stars Buster Keaton (One Week), Charlie Chaplin
(Easy Street), Laurel and Hardy (Big Business), and Monty Banks
(Chasing Choo-choos). The quality of the prints is the best we've seen, and the musical score is excellent by the Alloy Orchestra. It's a must have for Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy,Banks,and Chaplin Fans.

It was NOT worth the price, and the electronic music was awful. Watch it muted if you get this. Quite a dissapointment all around with Slapstick Masters and all.

IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT's SLAPSTICK MASTERS contains high-quality transfers of four of the silent era's greatest comedy shorts.

CONTENTS--

BIG BUSINESS-- Laurel & Hardy as Xmas tree salesmen get into an escalating war of destruction with an annoyed customer. As a crowd gathers, Stan and Ollie trash Jimmy Finlayson's landscaping and bungalow while Jimmy destroys their merchandise and truck. Police officer Tiny Sandford observes the action and calmly takes notes.

CHASING CHOO CHOOS-- Monty Banks short was edited from his feature, "Play Safe." Monty rescues a girl from a gang of thugs; she and the pursuing bad guys hop a freight train. Monty catches up to it by using a fruit peddler's horsecart and a racing car; the gang chases him across the tops of the cars. Includes some impressive stunts by Banks (and others).

EASY STREET-- Cop and ex-vagabond/thief Charlie Chaplin rids Easy Street of thuggish Eric Campbell. The bad guy escapes from jail and kidnaps Edna Purviance, but Chaplin triumphs again. The infant seen briefly is the son of directer Erich von Stroheim.

ONE WEEK-- Newlywed Buster Keaton bungles the assembly of his pre-fab house. Keaton's first-released solo short is one of his very best.


TELEVISTA's KINGS AND QUEENS OF SLAPSTICK features highlights from shorts by Chaplin, Lloyd, Laurel & Hardy, Semon, West, Chase and Turpin.


Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.

(8.2) Big Business (silent-1929) - Stan Laurel/Oliver Hardy/James Finlayson/Tiny Sandford/Charlie Hall/Retta Palmer/Lyle Tayo
(7.7) Chasing Choo Choos (1927) - Monty Banks/Virginia Lee Corbin/Leo Willis
(7.8) Easy Street (1917) - Charles Chaplin/Edna Purviance/Eric Campbell (uncredited: Leo White/Charlotte Mineau/James T. Kelley/Erich von Stroheim Jr.)
(8.3) One Week (1920) - Buster Keaton/Sybil Seely/Joe Roberts

I watched these shorts on Netflix and intend to order this DVD collection. All are very entertaining, but "One Week" is one of the funniest shorts I have ever seen. In an age prior to stunt men, prior to animation, and prior to CGI, this film is a major achievement.

Apparently some of the reviewers here have so little sophistication as to be unable to discern musical genius. I expect that they cannot comprehend anything that doesn't adhere to the normalcy of pop music. I'm sure they are equally unable to appreciate Berloiz or Zappa.

But The Alloy Orchestra is able to mold melody, style, disonnace and rhythm, and the universe of instrumental sounds to convey the story line, the emotion and the appropriate background sounds of these films simultaneously. I think these masterpieces all benefit markedly from the loving care applied to the modern soundtracks for these priceless films.

Music accompanying silent movies should not be annoying, and certainly shouldn't sound modern. The Alloy Orchestra completely ruins these great films with their cacophony. "Big Business" and "One Week" are absolute classics, but, in spite of an excellent visual experience, this DVD went straight to the second hand shop. I will wait until these films are presented with decent soundtracks before I add them to my film library.