I found "The Bell Hop" to be a cut above most of the examples of that breed of largely plot less gag-filled extravaganzas that is the Larry Semon comedy short. Enjoyed on a Larry Semon level, this is pretty exhilarating craziness.
Larry is the titular bellhop in a hotel which is so big, in an already impressive visual gag, that a policeman has to direct the huge crowds in lines of traffic in the lobby. From the start we are introduced to the notion that the short will have more "plot" than your average Larry Semon (which still might not amount to much), but that it holds that plot in the same contempt as usual: we begin by meeting Frank Alexander as "A government official who must put the well known papers in the well known safe so that we can go on with our story" and a group of villains as "The usual plotting emissaries from the usual fake kingdom seeking the usual valuable papers." This semblance of a plot, though, means Larry's cartoon-like gags can benefit from a little bit more setup than usual. It's funnier to see him jump around and drop things with a newt in his pants when just a bit of time has been taken to show how the Newt got there. While a lot of silent comedians get called "clowns," Larry was close to being literally a clown. An early close-up in this short gives an usual look at just how much clown make-up he used in his comedies.
There are some extraordinary and bogglingly elaborate sequences as usual, with Frank Alexander swimming through the floor and even a Buster Keaton-esquire gag in which a streetcar comes about half an inch from killing a baby. Unfortunately, there is the unavoidable Larry Semon "black-panic" gag, with a bottle of ink spilling on a sweating man's head, but at least it is de-racialized as much as feasible and much more than in some of his other shorts -- it almost feels like an obligatory nod to the running gag that somebody's face must get blackened than anything else.
Oliver Hardy, made up in frizzy hair and bushy moustache so he look s like Billy Gilbert, has a nice turn as a bribeable hotel clerk. One can really see him earning his slapstick credentials in these shorts.
In the end we veer away from the the hotel completely, but move to some of the most impressive stunts I have ever seen, which seem to involve barns really blown up, and people really hanging out of flying airplanes.
This would be a good introduction to Larry Semon's shorts. It's a little more palatable for the fact that it has a discernible sequence of events, and his trademarked crazy cartoon gags and hugely elaborate stunts are more impressive than usual.
Larry is the titular bellhop in a hotel which is so big, in an already impressive visual gag, that a policeman has to direct the huge crowds in lines of traffic in the lobby. From the start we are introduced to the notion that the short will have more "plot" than your average Larry Semon (which still might not amount to much), but that it holds that plot in the same contempt as usual: we begin by meeting Frank Alexander as "A government official who must put the well known papers in the well known safe so that we can go on with our story" and a group of villains as "The usual plotting emissaries from the usual fake kingdom seeking the usual valuable papers." This semblance of a plot, though, means Larry's cartoon-like gags can benefit from a little bit more setup than usual. It's funnier to see him jump around and drop things with a newt in his pants when just a bit of time has been taken to show how the Newt got there. While a lot of silent comedians get called "clowns," Larry was close to being literally a clown. An early close-up in this short gives an usual look at just how much clown make-up he used in his comedies.
There are some extraordinary and bogglingly elaborate sequences as usual, with Frank Alexander swimming through the floor and even a Buster Keaton-esquire gag in which a streetcar comes about half an inch from killing a baby. Unfortunately, there is the unavoidable Larry Semon "black-panic" gag, with a bottle of ink spilling on a sweating man's head, but at least it is de-racialized as much as feasible and much more than in some of his other shorts -- it almost feels like an obligatory nod to the running gag that somebody's face must get blackened than anything else.
Oliver Hardy, made up in frizzy hair and bushy moustache so he look s like Billy Gilbert, has a nice turn as a bribeable hotel clerk. One can really see him earning his slapstick credentials in these shorts.
In the end we veer away from the the hotel completely, but move to some of the most impressive stunts I have ever seen, which seem to involve barns really blown up, and people really hanging out of flying airplanes.
This would be a good introduction to Larry Semon's shorts. It's a little more palatable for the fact that it has a discernible sequence of events, and his trademarked crazy cartoon gags and hugely elaborate stunts are more impressive than usual.