Works featuring "comedy" (225)
And so I am a comedienne, though I, too, once wanted to do heroic and tragic things. Today my objection to playing comedy is that it is so often misunderstood by the audiences, both in the theater and in the picture houses. It is so often thought to be a lesser art and something which comes to one naturally, a haphazard talent like the amateur clowning of some cut-up who is so often thought to be ‘the life of the party’. In the eyes of so many persons comedy is not only the absence of studied effect and acting, but it is not considered an art.
--Dorothy Gish

The Water-Funker (La peur de l'eau)

Max's romance is derailed by a challenge to his fear of water. Only two comic moments: this first one at 9 minutes. The final comic moment (at 13 minutes) is Max in his best manic form. It's even more impressive because it is preceded by a chillingly grim portrayal of broken-hearted depression: like a cinematic display of manic-depression.

Max And The Statue (Max et l'inauguration de la statue)

After a party, Max passes out drunk in a knight's costume and is mistaken for a stolen statue.

A Strong Revenge

A weak comedy. Twelve minutes, one gag: homemade stench bomb revenge. Threadbare premise, even by early Keystone standards, with Ford Sterling forced to carry the comic load without help from Sennett or Mabel. And poor condition of print certainly doesn't help.

Love Me, Love My Cat (Max n'aime pas les chats)

Max loves Jane, but Jane loves her pussy - and it's driving Max mad. Too long, but hang in there til the end...

How Men Propose

Disappointing. No laughs, but at least it's short.

Rastus Among The Zulus

Surprise - no actors in blackface here! When Rastus falls asleep, racial violence lurks as a trio armed with sticks sneak up on him. Then Rastus does the Atlantic slave trade in rewind: he is forced on a ship and ends up in Africa. No surprise that he ends up in a cannibal stewpot (even though Zulus were the only Africans that Europeans explicitly declared to be not only not cannibals, but fiercely anti-cannibalism - despite causing the famines that led to cannibalism. But you didn't expect a Rastus - aka 'coon' - flick to be historically accurate, did you?). Rastus' abduction and forced labor on the route of the slave trade ends with him being beaten by a cop. Could there be a hidden message here?