Between the Acts at the Opera

Willie and Eugene Howard were two of the most popular vaudeville acts around and we are indeed lucky that Warner Brothers was testing its new Vitaphone sound process with these shorts before trying it in a feature length film, so that their comedy is preserved.

It's not preserved as well as it could have been though. The two men were obviously not used to performing before a camera, they needed a live audience to bounce their material off. The stuff I saw probably went over well in a local vaudeville house or even the Palace Theater. But some laughs would have probably energized these guys a bit more.

Still their material wasn't bad and you could tell they were good performers in their day.

I too stumbled on this on TCM. It was great and made me laugh the whole time. This is great comedy, simple and funny. No F bombs, bowl movement jokes or other lame topics used today. The quality is not so great but I'm sure that as technology advances more, this will be cleaned up so that the sound and image are a little better. The skit is a little stiff but I liked it that way, it was as if they were having a private conversation in between opera acts. Where can I get a copy to watch again? It is not on YouTube. It is also surprisingly not on the TCM website anywhere. I wanted to show it to a couple of people but no idea where to find more of the skits.

An interesting short that I caught by accident on TCM. It should be noted that this is more of a piece of history than anything else. Willie and Eugene are clearly out of their element. Their performances are a bit wooden, but a couple vaudevillians would probably be that way in front of a camera and without an audience to play to. The routine is pure shtick, featuring lots of one liners and a goofy song routine that goes on a bit too long. Again, some of the bits would have played better if there had been a live audience or if I had seen this in a movie theater. Though this short doesn't do them justice, you wonder what it would have been like seeing the Howard Brothers live on a vaudeville stage.

Willie and Eugene Howard were a couple vaudeville comedians from the 1920s. Fortunately, Vitaphone was experimenting with their early sound system (with a recorded disc playing in sync with the film) and so we have a preserved copy of their musical-comedy routine.

The film is very stage-bound--like so many of the Vitaphone shorts. It comes off like seeing the brothers on stage with no audience--no laughs and like another reviewer astutely pointed out, the film lacks a little something because of this. But it still has some very funny moments. Oddly, however, after some very nice humor, the pair break into song--rather operatic music. I was actually pretty impressed by the singing--while it's not the style I like, they had very impressive voices. Because of this, they must have been very much in demand in their day--having a variety of talents.

As far as a rating goes, it's very hard to give this a score. Historically, it is mega-important and preceded "The Jazz Singer" by a year. I think comparing it to other comedy shorts of the day (and there are not many), it is very good and worth your time if, like me, you are a big fan of early sound films.

I'd never heard of the Howard Brothers but it's easy to see why they were evidently so popular. Two friends are taking a break during the intermission of an opera. It's the familiar straight guy/funny guy routine. Many of the punch lines were laugh out loud such as the bit: "I'd like you to meet my girlfriend who went to college and now she chases bugs and insects, she's a, a - what'd you call it? A chambermaid." As others have commented, having an audience would have enhanced the performance. But that's true of almost all, if not all, stand up comedy. A funny routine indeed, although the last bit of opera singing left me cold (fortunately it was quite short but still too long).