It has always been a great mystery to me how one of America’s largest and most successful production companies in the early days of motion pictures managed to have virtually all of its output completely disappear. Smaller companies from that time period such as Edison and Biograph have left us a large number of their films but not Vitagraph. Why? Part of the reason is that they had no iconic name like Thomas Edison or D.W. Griffith, although one of their contract players, John Bunny (1863-1915), was once the most famous comedian in the world. But after Bunny died, he was quickly supplanted by Charlie Chaplin. Another reason is that Warner Brothers, who bought out Vitagraph in 1925, allowed most of the company’s negatives to be destroyed through careless handling and/or deliberate neglect.
Thanks to preservation efforts by the Library Of Congress, several of their popular comedies can once again be seen in this new 3 Blu-Ray set from Kino Lorber. Over the course of the 3 discs we are able to view 40 silent comedy shorts ranging from 3 minutes to 28 minutes long. They feature Vitagraph’s top comedy stars. In addition to John Bunny, there are Mr & Mrs Sidney Drew, (1863-1919, 1890-1925) Frank Daniels (1956-1935), and Larry Semon (1889-1928). Outside of Bunny and Semon whose work has appeared in other anthologies, Daniels and the Drews have been completely forgotten. I’ve been a fan of silent movies for over 60 years and I had never heard of Daniels and I had only seen a 1914 feature, A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT with Sideney Drew who BTW is the great-grand uncle of Drew Barrymore
To make up for this neglect, there are 7 Frank Daniels comedies and 10 featuring Mr & Mrs Drew. Larry Semon gets an entire disc devoted to him while former top star John Bunny gets only 2 comedies and none with Flora Finch, his partner of over 200 films. The main reason for Bunny’s neglect seems to be that the LOC participants interviewed don’t like him. It sounds as if they were influenced by guest commentator Anthony Slide who positively despises him. So much for objectivity! He also has a thing against overweight people as he also disparages supporting players Hughie Mack and Frank Alexander both of whom tip the scale at over 300 lbs. Good thing for Oliver Hardy that he was comparatively svelte at this time compared to after his teaming with Stan Laurel.
Speaking of Larry Semon, Anthony Slide doesn’t like HIM either. Semon is important historically in that he gave Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy their first big breaks in his comedies although independent of each other. He was admired by both men not only for giving them their start but for the quality of his gags, many of which were recycled in L & H shorts. Semon’s comedies are also the longest ones in the Vitagraph set and are in better shape than most of the others although it should be noted that none of the Vitagraphs included here look pristine. Slide is willing to concede that while he doesn’t care for Larry Semon, his films are clever and creative and the elaborate gags are well executed, especially the stunts and the large-scale destruction of property.
I can’t let this review go without saying a few things about guest commentator Anthony Slide. British born and now in his late 70s, he is certainly one of the foremost authorities on silent movies and has written several books to prove it. However, in his commentaries for these Vitagraph comedies, he, more often than not, lives up to his nickname which is Anthony SNIDE. With the exception of Mr & Mrs Sidney Drew (she preferred to be billed this way. Her real name was Lucille McVey) whom he clearly admires, the rest of the performers he either damns with faint praise or he disparages them on a regular basis. To be fair to Slide, towards the end of the set, he somewhat apologizes for his caustic comments. Overall his comments are informative but they are also aggravating.
If you go to Brooklyn today, the old Vitagraph smokestack still stands proud but the studio complex has been converted into very expensive apartments and condos. At least they are still being used even though they are well over 100 years old. All that is left of the Vitagraph product, their movies, is just a very small percentage of the hundreds of films that they made between 1897 and 1925. Hats off to the Library of Congress for preserving what they did and for aiding in the restoration of these silent comedies which, before 1920, were as well known as the Brooklyn Bridge. Thanks also to Kino Lorber for releasing this set and for all the past work they have done in presenting silent movies in home video editions. They’ve been at it now for over 30 years.
The Capsule Critic 