dstenhouse

This is easily the weakest Three Stooges film I've seen: it is a straightforward filming of their stage act, but it wasn't filmed in front of a live audience. Watching Ted Healy struggle to sell the act to a camera is painful - the lack of audience reaction saps his confidence, and his lack of confidence destroys his timing: the whole film sags as a result. There isn't any canned laughter to ease the tension, either (the Three Stooges never used canned laughter - their films were meant to be shown in a cinema, where you'd be surrounded by a laughing audience). I don't mind the Busby Berkeley-style dance numbers: for me, they're a relief from the ordeal of watching Ted floundering. The Stooges themselves seem more at ease, so this film may have helped influence the Columbia executives toward offering the Three Stooges a contract - without Ted.

When did this film first make its appearance in America? The notes in the DVD say that the film was not widely released until after the First World War, but I've found the following quote in "The Warner Bros. Story" by Clive Hirschhorn, telling what the Warner brothers did after Edison's infamous Trust had "persuaded" them to sell their film exchange business, which would have been in 1911 or 1912, "It was only a matter of months, however, before Sam Warner returned from a trip to New York having bought the rights for a five-reeler called Dante's Inferno based on the famous poem. Sam's idea was to take the film on the road, together with a narrator, who, while the movie unspooled, would read extracts from the original poem. The idea worked. The film opened in Hartford, Connecticut, and, according to Jack Warner, you could hear the cash registers ringing all the way to Ohio. The tour netted them $1,500 which Sam and Jack blew on a crap game in New York." The 2004 DVD release actually follows in Sam's footsteps by having some of the words sung, with music by Tangerine Dream. The music creates a dreamlike atmosphere which helps to overcome the creaky aspects of the film. I feel that an over-the-top, heavily dramatic orchestral soundtrack wouldn't work, as the creakiness would undermine the music. The credits at the start and end of the film were in keeping with those I've seen on other silent movie DVD's, except that they put some fuzzy stills behind them, so I found myself wondering if the entire movie was going to be that indistinct. The film turned out to be in pretty good condition overall, but it did vary a bit, as you'd expect in a film this old. This very important movie is easily worthwhile for any fan of silent film, and it is interesting enough to show to others as well, with the modern soundtrack providing a cushion of familiarity for those who aren't used to silent film. Highly recommended!

An Easter Egg is a hidden joke or reference in a movie, and Chaplin put one in 'The Kid'. How many of you have seen the movie and wondered why Chaplin put in a title card referring to the doctor as 'The Country Doctor'? The entire movie takes place in a city, so why should the doctor be a country doctor? The answer is this: in 1909 D.W. Griffith made a movie called 'The Country Doctor', and Chaplin was making an ironic comparison between the doctors in the two films! Griffith's film is hard-hitting, unforgettable and a superb piece of cinematic artistry. It's sentimental theme would have appealed to Chaplin, and I'm sure he was right in thinking that his audience in would remember the movie, despite the fact that it was made twelve years earlier: once seen, never forgotten! So there you have Chaplin's Easter Egg in 'The Kid'.