In honor and celebration of the Grand Opening of our new BEN TURPIN THEATER & Cineplex (and which you can find at https://www.angelfire.com/mn/hp/bt/bt-theater.html ), we are proud to present Gloria Swanson, Bobby Vernon, Wallace Beery, and Teddy the prize Keystone mastiff in "Teddy at the Throttle" (1916), and which marks the first time this film has ever been on the internet for free -- and with sound too! (The fps in this video, btw, are too fast to the point of pushing it; so, for those who don't already do know, there are more properly time and synchronized versions of this film than this transfer, but which last for us will have to do. The film otherwise is not that great of itself, and the real pleasure of the thing is in seeing Gloria Swanson do comedy; which many, like myself, wish she had done more of, as she was actually very good at it; as also we see in, for instance, her 1924 movie "Manhandled" directed by Allan Dwan.)
Later Note. In the interest of preserving the Ben Turpin films, at least for reference (as the print/transfer quality is, of course, not exactly the best), those who care to do so can download them as .avi files (zipped) via these links:
* "Small Town Idol" (1921), abridged, see:
http://www.archive.org/details/ASmallTownIdol1921-AbridgedWithNarration
* "Once Over Lightly" (1944), see:
http://www.archive.org/details/OnceOverLightly1944"
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Of not so very long ago, there's come out a new DVD series of American silent film artists and legends produced by a company called Classic Video Streams. This is the kind of thing they were doing on VHS back in the day, but to a large extent (though by no means entirely) has been sorely missing on DVD. It's not a little gratifying then to witness the return of the affordable and reasonably comprehensive video anthology, and hopefully there will be more and like them where these came from.
The following is a list (with links to amazon.com) of the "Volume 1's" of some of the stars and directors already being covered.
The following comes direcly from the Slapsticon website:
"SLAPSTICON 2010 TO UNVEIL LOST AND FORMERLY UNKNOWN CHAPLIN FILM
"In past years, the International Film Festival Slapsticon has prided itself on recovering and presenting lost comedy treasures, even discovering previously undocumented films featuring the Great Clowns of early cinema, rewriting film history books and filmographies. This year, at SLAPSTICON 2010, motion picture historians will be updating the filmography of the Greatest Comic of All, Charles Chaplin, as SLAPSTICON presents for the first time since it’s original release, Chaplin’s 36th Keystone short subject, a heretofore unknown appearance Chaplin made at Mack Sennett’s legendary Fun Factory in the same year and at the same studio in which he made his film debut.
"Chaplin had recalled in his own autobiography that apart from his starring role Keystone Comedies, he had also played bit parts as a Keystone Kop in several pictures. Despite this information, the titles of these works remained elusive for over 90 years and no film prints have surfaced -- until now. SLAPSTICON 2010 proudly presents one of those previously thought lost Keystone comedies, A THIEF CATCHER, released by the Mutual Film Corporation on February 19, 1914. The short stars Ford Sterling, Mack Swain, Edgar Kennedy, and features Chaplin making an extended and very funny cameo as a policeman. The film was shot January 5th through January 26th, 1914, making it perhaps the second or third film Chaplin made at Keystone. The short was released following Chaplin’s third starring Keystone comedy MABELS STRANGE PREDICAMENT. Its importance as an early Chaplin appearance cannot be underestimated, and definitely adds another interesting chapter to Chaplin’s early film career.
"The print of A THIEF CATCHER was discovered earlier this year by Film Historian / Preservationist Paul E. Gierucki, current head of restorations for CineMuseum LLC, and one of the"Godfathers" of a group of Comedy Film Historians known as the “Silent Comedy Mafia” who help to organize the yearly Slapsticon festivals.
"A THIEF CATCHER will be part of a Chaplin Rarities Program at SLAPSTICON 2010 showing Saturday Evening, July 17th at 8:00 pm at the Spectrum Theater in Rosslyn, Va. Also featured in the Rarities program will be a newly recovered reel of Chaplin Outtakes from his Mutual Comedies, and a sparkling print of Chaplin’s Liberty War Loan propaganda short, THE BOND (1918) featuring outtakes from that film. These remarkable comedies are just a few of the rare treasures that will be screened in the four days of SLAPSTICON 2010, which runs Thursday through Sunday, July 15-18th at the Rosslyn Spectrum Theater in Arlington, VA. For more information, a complete program schedule, registration and hotel information, go to
www.slapsticon.org
"Contact Information: RICHARD M ROBERTS EMAIL : reprobates@earthlink.net"
For a schedule and more specifically what's on the Slapsticon program this year, see http://www.slapsticon.org/program.html
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