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Voidsville Follies

Works featuring "goofs" (7)

The Pickpocket

Alf Collins (director)
Gaumont (production)

Language: Silent, released in Nov 1903
Minutes: 4

Man picks pocket, cops chase: a simple premise, developed to become a pioneering work in the genre of hilarious 'so-bad-it's-good' cinema.

Featured elements:

: action; chase; crime; extended incident; goofs

How A British Bulldog Saved The Union Jack

Walturdaw (production)

Language: Silent, released in Sep 1906
Minutes: 9

It's the golden rule of American vaudeville and British music halls: when your act is doing badly on stage, especially if you've got zero talent, just start waving the flag - because then no one would dare boo you. Here we see that rule's early migration from stage to screen.

Featured elements:

: action; animal act; anti-colonialism; armed conflict; emblematic shot; ethnic stereotype; goofs; patriotism; South Africa; white supremacy

A Harlequin's Story (La Légende de Polichinelle)

Albert Capellani (director/writer)
Lucien Nonguet (director)
Max Linder (lead)
Pathé (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in Jun 1907
Minutes: 8

Or, 'How Max Came To Comedy'

Featured elements:

: dance; ethnic stereotype; fantasy; goofs; rescue

The Unexpected Guest

Lubin (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in Aug 1909
Minutes: 10

Though we see the unexpected guest two years after its conception was hinted at, making it at least 15 months old, it appears to be still an infant!

Featured elements:

: forbidden love; goofs; melodrama; treachery

Max Takes Tonics (Victime du quinquina)

Max Linder (director/lead)
Maurice Delamare (lead/writer)
Pathé (production)

Language: Silent, French titles, English subtitles, released in Dec 1911
Minutes: 17

AKA, “Why Top Hats Fell Out Of Favor”...Max visits a doctor who prescribes a tonic, but Max overdoses and goes about the day in a completely drunken state. A true masterpiece - funnier with every viewing.

Featured elements:

: bad cop; boozy-woozy; comedy; farce; goofs; identity mix-up; infidelity; metakill science; neglected spouse; slapstick; smack attack; social commentary

Good Night, Nurse!

Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (director/lead/writer)
George Peters (cinematographer)
Al St. John (lead)
Buster Keaton (lead)
Alice Lake (lead)
Comique (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in Jul 1918
Minutes: 20

A fast-paced gagathon that's ultra high-energy - even by Comique's manic norm. Highlights:

Fatty's version of chivalry towards a storm-drenched damsel in distress
Fatty's irreverence for the National Anthem
Post-op Fatty checking on Lil' Willy
Alice Lake gets to join The Rough Boys' wild wackiness (but wisely ducks for cover when the roughhousing starts)
Fatty's Looney Tunes-style screwball pool dive
Fatty and doctor's courtship ritual

Demonstrating the usual senselessness of censors, only #1 got cut by the Chicago Board of Censors, while #2 and #3 slipped by.

Featured elements:

: addiction; animal act; bad cop; bimbo; boozy-woozy; chase; comedy; dance; gender-bender; goofs; identity mix-up; infidelity; metakill science; metatheatre; patriotism; roughhouse; servitude; slapstick

Don't Change Your Husband/Kisses Once (情海重吻)

Y.C. Zai/謝雲卿 (director/lead)
S.M. Chow/周詩穆 (cinematographer)
P.H. Yuen/嚴秉衡 (cinematographer)
Lyton Wong/王乃東 (lead)
T.S. Tong/湯天繡 (lead)
Chen Yi-Tang/陳一堂 (lead)
Yang Ai-Zhen/楊愛真 (lead)
Wang Xie-Yan/王謝燕 (lead)
Cui Tian-Sheng/催天生 (lead)
Zhang Fu-Feng/張扶風 (lead)
Wu Yi-Xiao/吳一笑 (lead)
Great China Lilium/大中華百合影片 (production)

Language: Silent, Chinese and English titles, released in 1929, month unknown
Minutes: 61

When a young wife's indiscreet extramarital affair is discovered, she and her husband find themselves pressured into a divorce that neither of them wants, but tensions aggravated by their families' class differences seem to compel. The shorter length and abrupt ending suggest that the final reel may be missing. A clumsy and heavy-handed plea for old-school righteousness, saved only by its lavish interior settings and a shot of mixed-up Chinese telegraph code.

Featured elements:

: family; flashback; forbidden love; goofs; infidelity; marriage termination; melodrama; modernism; redemption; social commentary

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