Crosscurrents of American and European Slapstick

Steve Massa, author of 'Lame Brains and Lunatics' and 'Slapstick Divas: The Women of Silent Comedy' is one of the guest programmers at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto this year. In 'Crosscurrents of American and European Slapstick', Massa and his co-curator Uli Ruedel highlight many great silent comedians including Harold Lloyd, Karl Valentin, Syd Chaplin, Sarah Duhamel, Mack Sennett, Mabel Normand, Ford Sterling, Pat & Patachon, Slim Summerville & Bobby Dunn, Larry Semon, Fratellini Brothers, Marcel Perez, André Deed, and Charley Chase. For this post, we selected 15 of their best postcards.


American postcard by Postcard Co. California, Los Angeles. Photo: Glen G. Stone, Los Angeles. Harold Lloyd and Mickey Daniels in Dr. Jack (1922). Captions: "Dr." Harold Lloyd and his patient, "Mickey" Daniels. (front) Showing Harold Lloyd in the role of a doctor who "dispenses happiness". Both he and his patient "look their parts". For the freckled youngster, the happiness has evidently to come after the dose.


Vintage German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 821/1, 1925-1926. Distr. S.F. (Südfilm A.G.). Harold Lloyd in the classic scene in Safety Last! (Fred Neymeyer, Sam Taylor, 1923). The street below is Los Angeles' Broadway, behind the clock is the still extant building of the Hamburgers / May Department Store. The clock itself was a set, built on the top of the building of 908 S. Broadway.


German postcard by Heliogravüre J.B. Obernetter, München. Collection: Marlene Pilaete. Bavarian comedian Karl Valentin (1882-1948) starred in many silent German films in the 1920s. Valentin was also active as a cabaret performer, clown, author and film producer, and was sometimes called the 'Charlie Chaplin of Germany'. His work influenced artists like Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett.


French collectors card by Pathé Frères, Comica, 1911. Photo: Pathé Frères, Comica, 1911. Sarah Duhamel as Rosalie in Rosalie veut en finir avec la vie (1911). Rosalie is fired, so she wants to commit suicide. She shoots herself with a revolver but only destroys the mirror. She throws herself on the tramway rails, but, alas, this one takes another track. She throws herself from a parapet but in vain. Desperate, she goes into a gunshop, throws a bomb and mounts to heaven But is only to cause her to descend again, this time in the arms of a well-mustached police officer, so gets lust for life again.


French collectors card by Pathé Frères, Comica, 1911. Photo: Pathé Frères, Comica, 1911. Sarah Duhamel as Rosalie in Rosalie a trouvé du travail (1911). Rosalie is hired as a worker at a fashion shop but has to promise to be at work at 7 sharp. The next morning she awakes at 10 to 7, shoots out of bed, dresses in haste, jumps down the stairs, and crosses the obstacles like a tornado. After a dishevelled run full of wild episodes, Rosalie arrives, red-headed and muddy, scarred with snags, at the fashion shop, only to read the sign on the closed front door, 'closed on Sundays and holidays'.


American postcard by Keystone cards, presented with Home Weekly. Photo: Keystone Film. Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand in Fatty's Wine Party (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, 1914). Caption: A Ticklish Moment.


American postcard by Max B. Sheffer Card Co., Chicago (M.B.S.C.Co.). Photo: Mack Sennett Production / First National. Mabel Normand as Suzanna in Suzanna (F. Richard Jones, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4453/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Lothar Stark-Film. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute. The Danish double-act Fy og Bi (Fyrtårnet og Bivognen aka Pat & Patachon) was the most famous comedy couple of the European silent cinema. Long Carl Schenstrom (1881-1942) and short Harald Madsen (1890-1949) became very popular in the 1920s with their short slapstick films.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5340. Photo: Verleih Leopold Hauk. Pat and Patachon in Filmens Helte/ Long and Short, the film heroes (Lau Lauritzen, Palladium 1928).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 285. Caption: Ridolini "al Tabarin". Larry Semon (Ridolini) in Trouble Brewing (James D. Davis, Larry Semon, 1924).


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 126. From left to right, Albert, François and Paolo (Paul) Fratellini. The three brothers starred together in the French silent film Rêves de clowns (René Hervouin, Madame Vigier de Maisonneuve, 1924) in which they played three famous clowns who are puzzled by a single woman in the audience who seems to find their act not funny.


Italian poster by Litografia Pecco, Torino. The Ambrosio production Gli auto-scat di Robinet (1911) is a short comedy with the actor Marcel Fabre a.k.a. Marcel Perez a.k.a. Robinet. The poster is part of the Desmet-Collection of the Eye Filmmuseum.


French postcard by Sadag de France, Imp., Paris, no. 40. Photo: Pathé Frères. André Deed in Boireau à l'école/Boireau at school (André Deed, 1912). André Deed (1879-1940) was one the most popular comedians in French and Italian silent cinema under the names of Boireau and Cretinetti. He also was a film director and scriptwriter.


French postcard, no. 3. Cliché X. André Deed.


Spanish postcard by IFG. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Collection: Marlene Pilaete. American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and film director Charley Chase (1893-1940) was best known for his work in Hal Roach's short film comedies. Chase usually portrayed an apparently gentle and charming man who in reality, it eventually turned out, was quite a loser after all.

Many thanks to Steve Massa, and also to Ivo Blom, Marlene Pilaete and Egbert Barten of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.