I love to discover something I know nothing about even if it doesn’t always work out. I have never heard of the Weiss Brothers or their production company Artclass Pictures before now. Disc 1 of this 2 DVD set features well known silent comedians Ben Turpin and Snub Pollard at the end of their careers along with Poodles Hanneford of circus fame. I was totally unfamiliar with any of the people on Disc 2 (Hairbreadth Harry, Jimmy Aubrey, and Izzie and Lizzie).
The comics are fine but the material is second rate with ethnic stereotyping and bad taste in I&L that is absolutely jaw dropping. The one exception in this package are the Hairbreadth Harry shorts which poke fun at dated silent movie techniques. By the late 1920s when these were done silent comedy had become quite formulaic with crude slapstick mixed in with situation comedy. One can easily see the effect of Mack Sennett and Hal Roach on these shorts and they point the way to The 3 Stooges who are less than a decade away.
Many of the gags are recycled from previous films which was standard practice back then as no one ever thought that anyone would be watching these shorts over and over again thanks to modern technology. They would probably be amazed like Buster Keaton that anybody else would care about them at all. It’s a shame that all silent material can’t look this good as these films come from relatively pristine 35mm sources which means that they were well preserved and probably not viewed very often. The overall look of the shorts is the strongest asset of this set along with the fine piano accompaniment of Phillip C. Carli and David B. Drazin.
WEISS-O-RAMA is definitely worth having if you’re a fan of Pollard or Turpin or enjoy silent comedy in general but it’s certainly not the ideal place to start. Thanks to VCI and Kit Parker Films for making this set available to give us some idea of what silent comedy could look like and how much it had changed by the time sound was ready to come in.
The Capsule Critic 