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Holds Open Court
THE CHARGE: They KHled Low-Brow Comedy
THE ACCUSED: The M Talkies
<Mk
THE PROSECUTOR: Mack Sennett
They Knew the Deceased
ALSO, from the inspiration of the late Low-Brow Comedy came amazing and lasting personahties of the screen. First and foremost always, that great genius, Charles Chaplin. That beloved laugh-girl, Malbel Normand. Harry Langdon, Gloria Swanson, Wallace Beery, Phyllis Haver, Marie Prevost. Low-Brow Comedy fathered and mothered these great of the entertainment world — because, Ladies and Gentlemen, in the realm of Low-Brow Comedy they never ceased to be more or less than entertainers. Art consciousness had no place in their efforts — and so they were artists. The world laughed and wept with them. But sad as it is to relate, this was not always the case after they deserted the old school. Harry Langdon, for one, suffered when he forsook his training of buffoonery for more subtle comedy. Charles Chaplin allows years to elapse between his pictures.
Often I have sat in darkened theaters, watching the new comedy modes of the Low-Brow offspring and wondered at how quickly they forsook their early training. That creed was: Action, Speed, Entertainment . . . first, last and in the middle.
But I fear that we go adrift of the real issue. We are not gathered to bemoan or question the death of Low-Brow Comedy. It is gone forever. It is a part of yesterday. We cannot bring it back if we would. I, for one, am satisfied that it is so. He who denies the inevitable. Ladies and Gentlemen, is more foolish than he who throws a custard pie. That is unwritten law. Low Comedy is dead. Sophistication of situation and dialogue has come to take its place in the field of comic entertainment. Let us consider the case of the assassin, and what cause, if any, there is for indictment.
For and Against the Accused HE new comedy trend has this redeemmg ature: It is adult entertainment. No longer are screen laughs confined to the nonsense of a child's appreciation. Speaking as a proucer, I am relieved at this trend of events. It is much easier to have a man say something funny than to have him do it. There are just so many given situations that are funny in pantomime, but the field of speech is unlimited. Just recently I have produced what I hope is laughable entertainment, based on various current themes, including diet, golf, gangsters and airplanes. Low-Brow Comedy, rest its soul, was not so flexible. Too, its audience was comprised of patrons of small-town theaters. That the poor creature was on its death-bed at the time of the fatal blow is not to be denied. On the other hand. Ladies and Gentlemen, these new sophisticated comedy shorts are reaching first and popular-run houses, and are increasingly in demand. Their virtues, then, are these: Timeliness, Variety, Dialogue and Novelty. Their great fault lies in that they do not move sufficiently fast for real {Continued on page P5)
Above, Mack Sennett, dean of Low-Brow Comedy, lately done to death. At right, a scene from a Mack Sennett comedy starring Billy Bevan, in the days when humor was rough. At left, a setting for a modern, sophisticated Educational two-reeler
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